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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 























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THE SOCIAL DANGER 


OR 


Two Years of Socialism 

IN 

EUROPE AND AMERICA. 


TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF 

L’Abbe winterer 





Chicago and New York: 
BELEORD, CLARKE & CO. 
1886. 

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HX3^ 

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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1886, by 
THE ST. VINCENT DePAUL PUBLISHING CO. 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C. 





CONTENTS 


Translator’s Preface........ 

Some Words to the Reader.i. 

FIRST PART. 

PAGE 

A glance at the socialistic collectivist movement since 1882. 1 

Germany. 9 

England. 33 

Austria..... 39 

Belgium and Holland.,... 46 

Spain and Portugal. 53 

France. 56 

Italy. 67 

Poland. 71 

Russia. 76 

Scandinavia. 80 

Servia and Roumania. 84 

Switzerland. 86 

North America. 91 

SECOND PART. 

Anarchistical Socialism. 98 

Germany. 104 

England. 106 

Austria ...108 

Belgium. 115 

Spain. 117 

France. 121 

Italy.134 

Russia. 136 

Switzerland.156 

United States. 161 

THIRD PART. 

General Observations.166 

The situation. 167 

Nature of the social plague. 169 

The cure. 174 

Appendix—A narchism in Chicago and its terrible consequences 184 

































Mulhouse, le 12 Avril, 1886. 


Venere Confrere : 

Je vous accorde volontiers la permission 
de traduire mon travail sur le Danger Social. Je 
serai heureux de servir un peu meme en Amerique, 
la grande cause a laquelle plus que jamais nous 
devons tous nos devceuments et tous nos sacrifices. 

Je vous prie d’agreer avec mes meilleurs vceux 
mes sentiments les plus respectueux, 

Tout a vous in J. C. 


L. Winterer. 


Some Words to the Reader. 


Six years ago, 1 the readers to whom we addressed 
our first study on contemporaneous socialism, were 
astonished by it. One critic, who is as eloquent, as 
he is sincere, M. D. Steyert, has made the following 
avowal, “the showing seemed so damaging (pessi- 
miste) that I thought I might offer, at least, as far as 
the proletariat of France was concerned, some re¬ 
strictions, but events have shown me that I was 
wrong, and have done full justice to the foresight of 
the author.” 2 -Yes, events have justified our darkest 
predictions. Already in 1822 s we recognized the 
alarming progress of socialism. In 1844, in our 
place in the German Parliament, we thought we 
were authorized in declaring, that socialism had re¬ 
treated nowhere and had advanced nearly every 
where. 


1. “ Le Socialisme contemparain, Paris Palme.” 

2. Le Salute public, Journol de Lyon, 12 Sept. 1883. 

3. Trois annes de l' histoire du Socialism contemporain, Paris: Palme . 



Of the speakers on that occasion, who followed, 
no one thought of contradicting us. The first part 
of the work we now offer to the public was printed 
when the elections of the 28th October were held in 
the German Empire. In these elections the social¬ 
ists gained twenty-four seats in Parliament; they ob¬ 
tained successes which confirm more than ever our 
fears, and surpass our predictions. These results 
were saluted with enthusiasm by the socialists of all 
countries, who understood their importance. God 
grant that they who are called by any title whatso¬ 
ever, to guard society, recognize in their turn the 
immense gravity of what has happened in Germany! 
As for us, we do not hesitate to take up again the 
task we have imposed on ourselves, and to give 
warning of the recent developments in Germany. 
This task is not less tiring, than painful; we trust it 
may be useful. 


TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. 


Permission to translate this work, was accorded 
by the Abbe Winterer, in his letter from Mulhouse, 
bearing date, 12th April, 1886. It was not then 
anticipated that the anarchists of Chicago, would 
cast into the shade the exploits of their brothers in 
Europe; and this translation was not undertaken for 
the purpose of utilizing the Hay Market massacre 
to obtain circulation. The date of the Abbe’s letter 
is sufficient evidence of that. 

The extraordinary progress of socialism for a long 
time had occupied the mind of the translator. The 
distinctive characteristics of socialism, anarchism, 
and nihilism, were known to him, as well as their 
connection; and the causes of this sudden revolu¬ 
tion, its importance, its aim, its remedy, would have 
furnished matter for an original work. 

But acquaintance with the labors of the Abbe 
Winterer, brought the conviction, that it would be 



II 

better to utilize them, and forego the other purpose. 

The Abbe Winterer is one of the ablest repre¬ 
sentatives in the German Imperial Parliament, where 
he has had a seat for many years, and has observed 
closely and specially the march of socialism. His 
position in Parliament, affords him opportunities of 
seeing, heari'ng, and studying the leaders of the 
movement; while his residence and station at Mul- 
house, in the center of the great industrial countries, 
which France has had to cede to Germany, permit 
him to examine the progress of the socialistic doc¬ 
trines among the laboring classes. 

As Germany is the headquarters of socialsm, and 
directs and inspires its followers everywhere, a writer 
of the history of this new revolution would there be 
best placed for his work. 

Some circumstances, delayed the publication of 
this translation until the present moment, and the 
Hay Market murders, and the trial of the anarchists, 
have caused many of the incidents narrated in this 
history to pale. So much more is known now of 
the nature and aim of socialism, that much of the 
information given here may be considered as antici¬ 
pated. Yet a general view of the movement may 
have its advantages, and the greatness of the local 
outbreak does not exclude the warning to be received 
from the knowledge of the unity, the discipline, the 
wide-spread character and the fanaticism of the attack 
on social order. 


Ill 


It may be beneficial to compare, too, the attacks 
on order in Europe, with those we had here; and 
notice the similarity of the tactics. 

The first note, one may say, of socialism in Europe, 
is its denial of God; and its leaders are invariably 
prominent atheists. We are not disposed to say 
that all the members participate in this denial, but 
the great majority do. Indeed, the destruction of 
Religion is considered an essential part of the war 
to be waged. 

The socialists in this country, as we have seen, are 
heartily in union with their colleagues in Europe. 
The defence of the trial in Chicago, relied a great 
deal on the influence over the jury of statements, 
comparisons and declarations, all excluding belief in 
the Christian revelation. Not one of the convicted 
men profess to recognize any religious faith. 

If there be no accountability hereafter, it is difficult 
to suppose that men fanatically engaged in further¬ 
ing a cause, should be restrained by such a thing as 
an oath. And we have seen here, as in Europe, ex¬ 
amples of the power of such freedom, from the claims 
of truth. 

Counter-evidence of a kind singularly apropos, can 
always be had among revolutionists, whose concience 
does not restrain. This is a precious advantage for 
a defence against law, and is not only used abroad, 
as well as here, but is sanctioned and praised; and it 
is not permitted, that the formality of an oath should 


IV 


in any way mar the interests of the socialistic cause. 

The weapons for such attacks are nearly the same 
everywhere. Much is expected from Science. Yet, 
we think, that there is less danger in bombs and ex¬ 
plosives, than in the gradual sapping by dangerous 
doctrines of the very foundations of society. 

“When the workingmen of England,” says one of 
their authorities, “become socialists, it will not be 
enough to say, there are socialists in England, but 
that England belongs to the socialists. ” This looks 
prophetic. It will be bad enough when a majority 
or a considerable minority of the the laboring men 
become socialists. If such a gangrene gets into the 
body politic, it will take a sharp operation to remove 
it before mortification ensues. If ever, in the United 
States, the laboring classes are imbued with the con¬ 
viction that revelation, concience, truth, rights, are 
fictions, no bombs will be needed, no battering rams 
required. The Republic will fall like Jericho. Then 
it may be said, Actum est de Republican 

Of what may be the causes of this new Revolution, 
and its remedy, the Abbe Winterer will explain. 


Chicago, Sept. 9, 1886. 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 

— OR — 

TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM 

— IN — 

EUROPE AND AMERICA. 


FIRST PART. 

Review of the Movement of Collectivist 
Socialism since 1882. 

The readers, who have followed our preceding 
histories, know what we call collectivist socialism. 
This kind of socialism rejects all actual economical 
organization, and with it all social organization. It 
condemns private property, as we understand it; it 
asks that all instruments of labor, including the soil, 
and mines, be held collectively by the State. A small 
number of socialists would limit themselves to prop¬ 
erty held collectively, by the Commune. 

The theory of collective property, in the first sense 
has been expounded, by the German socialist, Karl 
Marx. Those who proclaim that doctrine are some¬ 
times called Marxists. 

The fundamental idea of the system of Marx is 
admitted to-day, generally, by the socialists of Europe 
and America. 



THE SOCIAL DANGER 


Collectivist socialism is revolutionary. Its aim is 
the destruction of the actual social organization. It 
does not, at least for the present, wish to employ vio¬ 
lent means. This distinguishes it from anarchism. 

It desires the diffusion of the socialistic doctrine 
by all such means as habitual relations, by the press, 
by reunions, and associations. It favors universal 
suffrage, and puts forth all its energies to have its 
followers represented in political assemblies. The 
most ardent proselytism is inculcated on all socialists. 

Collectivist socialism seeks, above all, to impress 
the denial of private property on those who do not 
possess it. It considers society, in its present organi¬ 
zation, as divided into two corps, one of toilers 
( exploites ) and those who benefit by the toil ( exploi- 
teiirs). It propagates a hatred between these two 
classes. It presents itself as the Messiah of the 
toilers. 

In combating the actual social organization, it com¬ 
bats everything that supports society. Its press re¬ 
veals deep hatred of the church, of government, of 
magistrates, and armies. 

In their programmes the socialists say sometimes, 
that religion, as a private sentiment, does not dis¬ 
please them ; but the chiefs of the movement haye 
always audaciously professed the most absolute 
atheism. Socialism denies God and the future life. 
In this world was the name of God never before so 
denied, and they blaspheme as never before have 
men blasphemed. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 7 

More attention is accorded to anarchism on ac¬ 
count of the dread its acts have brought upon the 
world; yet without wishing to diminish this dread, we 
see greater danger in the propagation of the social¬ 
istic idea. 

The philosopher, Jouffroy, has described the state 
of his mind when he had lost Faith. “ In vain,” said 
he, “trembling at the unknown void on which I was 
afloat, I cast myself back again upon my childhood, 
my family, my country; on everything that was dear 
to me; the irresistible current of my thoughts was 
stronger than parents, memories, family, belief; it 
asked me to abandon all. This examination was 
pursued more obstinately and severely, as the end 
was being reached, and only stopped when it was 
reached. I then knew that nothing was standing. 
The moment was terrible.” Such expressions must 
be used to describe the ravages of socialism in a soul 
which it has wrecked. Socialism not only breaks 
with belief, it repudiates the Christian life entirely. 
The socialist rejects God, he expects nothing in the 
life to come; before him in this life he sees' society, 
which he calls his enemy. 

We know very well that a socialist who has had a 
certain degree of Christian education, and has lived 
with Christian surroundings, can not at once 
deprive himself of that double influence. But what 
will happen if socialism spreads itself further, and if 
the education of the family becomes socialistic, and 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


if the socialists succeed in forming a state in the state? 
Then we will see two societies with no mutual under¬ 
standing, opposed, and as inimical to each other, as 
was that of ancient Rome, and that which the Ro¬ 
mans called barbarian. 

Socialism has already got its catechisms, and these 
are not limited to economical questions; they touch 
upon others, relating to man and his destiny. In 
many socialistic families, education is made conform¬ 
able to the ideas of the father. We have observed 
one of such families. The name of God was only 
known through the blasphemies they uttered. No 
marriage consecrated the union of the father and 
mother. In the language of the children there were 
expressions that other children could not understand, 
while they could not understand some expressions of 
other children. On Sunday when the church bells 
announced divine services, the father assembled his 
three boys, the eldest of whom was fourteen years of 
age, in the chief room and went through the milita¬ 
ry drill, and while other children of their age were 
praying, they performed those exercises. 

It is not possible, step by step, to follow the so¬ 
cialistic idea making its way to the domestic hearth. 
The more this idea takes possession of man the more 
easily will it capture education. From the general 
development of it, we may deduce its success in in¬ 
vading the family domain. 

With these preliminary observations, let us now 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 9 

follow from country to country the socialistic move¬ 
ment and its propagation during the last two years. 
We will have to admit more than one important suc¬ 
cess, and to recognize, too, energy worthy of a better 
cause. 

We pass in review the different countries in alpha¬ 
betical order, 1 as we have done in our former studies. 


I. 

Germany.— German socialism has exercised a pre¬ 
dominant influence on the collectivist socialism of all 
countries. It is even to-day the best organised. It 
is easy to name its leaders, write its history, and 
indicate its manner of working. It has almost become 
a society within a society, a state within a state. It 
is a most astonishing thing, and one which ought to 
make every one who studies the condition of social 
life reflect, that in the German Empire, the era of 
socialism corresponds with an era of unparalleled 
political success. 

German socialism has its well defined dogma; has 
its government, to which it freely submits, and pays 
its tribute; has its congress which regulates its exis¬ 
tence; has an official organ which although it is printed 
abroad, exercises, nevertheless, an independent influ¬ 
ence. Notwithstanding all the severity of the Law of 
the 21 st of October, made to impose silence, and 


1. By the change of language the alphabetical order has been impaired.— Trans. 


IO 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


arrest its movements, socialism talks, writes and 
obtains great electoral triumphs, organizes great 
meetings, has its popular feasts, gives ovations to the 
living, and decrees noisy honors to the dead. 

If socialism has no God, it has, nevertheless, a 
prophet. This prophet is Karl Marx, who taught it 
the fundamental doctrine of collective property, and 
who called it to wage war until death, against capital. 

Karl Marx died on nth of March, 1883 at seventy 
years of age. He died in exile, but that added to his 
reputation among his followers. Marx had lived in 
exile in Paris, London, and New York. He aided 
revolution and socialism by his manifestoes, his many 
pamphlets, by his works, by the periodicals to which 
he contributed, by the societies which he founded, and 
by the Internationale which he established, and of 
which he was the life. He edited at Cologne in 1842, 
La Gazette Rhenane; in Paris in 1844, the Vorwarts 
(Forward); at Brussels in 1847, La Gazette Alle- 
mande; in Cologne‘from 1848 to 49, La Nouvelle 
Gazette Rhenane; in New York from 1852 to 
1861, La Tribune. In 1864 he gave to the Interna¬ 
tionale its laws. In 1867 he published the first volume 
of his book on “Capital” which has made an epoch 
in modern socialism. 

When Marx died, thirty five years had elapsed 
since he first put forth his rallying cry “Workingmen 
(proletaires ) of all countries, unite.” It was with 
this cry he expected to bring about the creation of 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 


i 


the Internationale. Some extracts from the speeches 
made at the grave of Marx will let us understand 
what a recognized authority he possessed in the 
socialistic world. 

“The greatest thinker of our day” says his former 
colleague, Frederick Engels, “ceased to think—14th 
March, at three o’clock in the evening.” 

“The loss which the workingmen ( proletariat ) of 
Europe and America, as well as historical science, 
have met with, is incalculable.” 

“Darwin discovered the law of developement in 
organic nature, Marx gives us the law of develop¬ 
ment in human history.” 1 

“Marx did not stop there, it was through him we 
know the law that governs the production of modern 
capital—a production which has begotten the society 
of capitalists (la societe bourgeoise ) .” 

“ Beyond everything Marx was revolutionary. To 
destroy the society of capitalists and its institutions, 
to contribute to the emancipation of the workingmen 
of the day (proletariat moderne') to whom he had 
made known their situation, their wants, and the 
conditions of their deliverance, was his mission.” 

“ He died beloved, respected, mourned by millions 
of friends who lived far apart, in the mines of Siberia, 
in the lands of Europe and America, to the far off 
California.” * * * *" 


1 Hutton, in a recent “Contemporary Review,” gives precedence to Cardinal Newman 
over Darwin in the discovery of the law of developement. 


12 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


These are the words of the Russian revolutionary 
P. Lawoff. They are interesting in more than one 
way. 

“ In the name of the Russian revolutionists, I greet 
for the last time, the most eminent master of modern 
socialists. One of the most mighty intellects is no 
more ; one of the most energetic opponents of those 
who benefit by other people’s toil ( exploiteurs ciu 
proletariat ) has ceased to live. 

“ The Russian socialists kneel at the grave of the 
man who sympathized with them, in all the vicissi¬ 
tudes of the terrible struggle they were engaged in, 
and which they will continue until the day of triumph, 
for the principles of social revolution. The Russian 
language was the first to possess a translation of the 
“Capital”—that gospel of contemporaneous social¬ 
ism. The students of the Russian institutions were 
the first to hear a stirring interpretation of the theo¬ 
ries of the great thinker.” 

In its turn the Parisian association of the party of 
French workingmen expressed, through its secretary, 
the grief which the death of the great thinker had 
caused. He created , thought they, by his analysis of 
the production of capital, scientific socialism,which led 
to the modern revolutionary communist movement . 

Jose Mesay Leompart gave utterance to the senti¬ 
ment of the party of Spanish workmen of Madrid, 
on the cruel loss of the great Socialist, the master of 
us all. The Socialist deputy, Liebknecht, did not 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 13 

wish to be surpassed by any one, in his admiration 
of his departed master. We can add, too, no one 
was more blasphemous than he. “Science,” said he 
“is the liberatrix of the world. Natural science 
delivers us from God. Science is not German ; it 
recognizes no frontier.” 

“It above all, recognizes no such frontiers as those 
of nationality .” 

“ Socialistic science, to which Marx introduced the 
people, kills capitalism, and with it the idols and 
masters of the world.” 

“The creator of “ Capital ” became necessarily the 
creator of the “International Association of Work¬ 
ingmen.” 

“ Before Marx, socialism was a sect, or a school; 
he made of it a party, destined to struggle, not to be 
defeated, and to triumph.” 

“ Marx belongs not only to the Germans, but to 
the workingmen of the (proletariat universal ) 
world.” * * * * * 

These quotations are borrowed from the official 
organ of German socialism 1 . As well as showing 
what place Karl Marx occupied in the guiding of 
contemporaneous socialism, these declarations teach 
us something of the fanaticism of its disciples. 

The death of the founder of the Internationale 
made, doubtless, a great breach in the front rank of 
the party. At this moment German socialism has 


1. Der Sozial Demokrat, 22 March, 1883. 


14 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


no agitator to be compared to Lassalle, nor any 
thinker like Karl Marx. It is not, nevertheless, with¬ 
out bold and able leaders. The general direction is 
confided to the socialistic representatives in the Ger¬ 
man Parliament, (. Reichstag ). Each important sec¬ 
tion has, besides, its special leaders and orators; the 
smallest group has men of confidence, elected and 
known to it, to act as directors. In general those 
who represent socialism, in all kinds of meetings, are 
fluent speakers. The former system of selecting 
and training, and designating their orators still 
seems to be continued. 

In the front rank appear the names, already known, 
of the deputies Bebel, Liebknecht, LeVollmar, Kay- 
ser, Hasenclever and Grillenberger. The young 
locksmith, Goerki, made himself quite remarkable in 
Berlin. Bebel, who is an adroit and engaging agita¬ 
tor, and a very fluent speaker, diminished his reputa¬ 
tion by becoming an author. He has published two 
pamphlets. In the more recent one, his hatred of 
Christianity indticed him to assert the superiority of 
Islamism; in the former “ Woman in the past, present 
and future he has surpassed even the materialistic 
ideas of a socialistic disciple. Bebel’s only strength, 
is when he is attacking the weak side of positive 
economical questions. Outside of that, his ignorance 
is on a par with his assurance. 

In the last two years, the Law against socialism, of 
21 st October, 1878, has been applied with as much 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 15 

severity as before. Berlin and its suburbs, and 
Hamburg, Altona, Harburg, and their neighboring 
districts, Leipsic, and the country around it, are 
considered in a state of seige. Expulsions continue, 
and the socialistic press is reduced to secret and con¬ 
traband publications, and public socialistic associations 
have been disbanded; nevertheless, as we have said, 
and the government admits, German socialism has 
not receded. It takes glory to itself, that it is stronger 
than ever. 

In carrying out the 28th article of the Law of 
28th October, 1878, which was concerned with the 
state of siege, the government submitted to the 
Reichstag, in two years, three reports on the 
measures taken against the socialists; the first on 5th 
December, 1882; the second on 6th March, and the 
last on 27th June, 1884. The first report gives the 
following facts, which we will summarily resume. 
Success at the elections had given fresh courage, and 
activity to the socialists. In one quarter of a year 
13,000 copies of the Demokrat, brought in secretly, 
despite the vigilance of the police, were confiscated. 
At Hamburg the socialists had not diminished in 
numbers. The spreading of contraband writings was 
very active. Secret meetings were multiplying. Every 
effort was made to group the different trades, and 
to procure the leadership in them for socialists. 

In Berlin the leaders who had been banished were 
replaced by others. A committee had been selected 


16 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


for the propagation of contraband socialistic works. 
An incendiary work, to the extent of 20,000 copies 
had been spread broadcast. During the month of Feb¬ 
ruary 15,000 copies of the Zukunft (The Future) 
had been seized. The situation in Leipsic was like 
that of Berlin and Hamburg. Very many copies of 
the Sozial Demokrat had been captured. 

The second report was made to the Reichstag 
twelve months later; it recognized that socialism had, 
on the whole, retained its positions. Twenty expul¬ 
sions had taken place in Hamburg, and Altona, and 
seventeen in Berlin. Since the congress of Copen¬ 
hagen, in March, 1883, a positive progress of 
the socialistic movement was apparent; the disciples 
of Berlin, of Hamburg, and of all Germany, were 
much encouraged. In a partial election at Ham¬ 
burg the socialistic candidate received nearly twelve 
thousand votes, and was elected. The working¬ 
men had grouped themselves into professional 
classes, and these had always socialists at the head. 
The Sozial Demokrat , of Zurich, obtained large circu¬ 
lation in Germany, and had to increase its issues. 
Finally it was admitted that the subscriptions from 
the workingmen in favor of socialism had much aug¬ 
mented. 

The third report was, concerning Leipsic, issued 
the 29th June. Socialists had been banished from 
that city. It was always one of the principal centres 
for the spreading of contraband literature, and through 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 


17 

it chiefly the Sozial Demokrat found its way into 
Saxony and the Empire. The correspondent of the 
Sozial Demokrat pays great attention to what occurs 
in Leipsic. 

The debates which took place in the Reichstag on 
the occasion of the presentation of these reports of 
the government, as well as on that of the decree to 
extend the duration of the laws against socialism, only 
tended to confirm the truths of the statement made 
in these reports. The solemnity of the debates and 
the interest they excited in Germany and abroad, 
showed clearly that the question of German socialism 
was not without its gravity. The adversaries of the 
Law against socialists declared let the Law fall; it has 
not stopped the progress of socialism. Those in 
favor of it limited their answer to this : the Law has 
broken the visible and external organization of social¬ 
ism, and has arrested its propagation. What would 
have happened if the Law had not done that much? 
Then what did the socialists’ representatives do ? 
They took care not to put on any airs of repentant 
sinners. Let us quote some of their most character¬ 
istic words : 

De Vollmar : “ You sought to banish us from the 

Reichstag ; (Parliament) we have come back again in 
greater numbers.” * * *. * 

“ You sought to destroy our press. * * You, 

yourselves admit that you have confiscated in three 
months 13,000 copies of our principal organ. * * 


i8 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


It gives me pleasure to notify you, that not in three 
months, but in every week we just print now as 
many copies of our journal. 

You wished to disorganize us. You may now 
recollect that you have not even succeeded in the 
cities which were in the state of siege.” 

“ All the concessions you may make us, will not let 
us forego one iota of our claims ( revendication .) 

“We do not believe that Revolution can be 
imposed upon a people. Society must be prepared 
for it. Whenever the conditions will be ready, our 
party, doubtless cannot remain inactive.” 

“You see violent movements in Italy, Spain, and 
the German provinces, where our influence does not 
preponderate, but where it does everything is quiet. 
We have sense enough not to fritter away the 
strength, which it is our interest not to impair.” 1 * * 

Grillenberger. “Your law against socialists is 
the result of fear ; it is the cowardice of the ruling 
classes, formulated in paragraphs.” 2 * 

Hassenelever. “You will not succeed in forcing 
us into the arms of anarchism, or of obtaining our 
submission.” 3 

Bebel. “We are to-day what we were yesterday, 
and we will be to-morrow what we are to-day.” 4 

Liebknecht . “ If the law against socialists was not 

1. Session of 13th Dec. 1882. 

2. Session of 14th Dec. 1882. 

3. Session of 20th March, 1884. 

4. Session of 20th March, 1884. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 19 

pro nihilo (of no account) it would be pro nihilismo (for 
nihilism.) On the day when in consequence of repres¬ 
sion, the working man will have lost faith in the 
efficacy of our policy, and when we will be convinced 
that the cohesion of our party can no longer be main¬ 
tained, we will then decline all responsibility and 
will declare ; they wish to annihilate us. No party 
can consent to its annihilation. Self preservation 
forbids it; and then, all organized leadership having 
disappeared, you will find yourselves face to face with 
anarchism. 1 ” 

Bebel. “We are fighting in the front rank, against 
the rule of the middle class, (la bourgeoisie ) of capital. 
When it falls, it will carry everything down.” 

“ The spread of socialistic ideas depends much less 
on the activity of agitators than on the social condi¬ 
tions in which we are living. * * One hundred 

years ago, a hearty laugh would have greeted Lassalle. 
* * Modern production, and capital, provide for 

socialistic ideas favorable soil. The development of 
capital degrades ( proletariat ) the masses. No 
period presents such a degration (■ proletarisation ) of 
the masses, as that of the last twenty years. Do not 
be astonished if you see socialism walking hand in 
hand with the actual economical movement. In the 
same measure as capital extends, so the degradation 
of the workman will be developed; and socialistic 
ideas will grow in influence and expansion. It will 


4. Session 20th March, 1884. 


20 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


follow, as true as that two and two make four, that if 
you have no power to stop the march of capital 
you will be without means of arresting the progress 
of socialistic ideas. Capital engenders them.” 1 

To end our description of the attitude of the social¬ 
istic deputies, let us bear in mind that Liebknecht 
closed the memorable debates in Parliament ( Reich¬ 
stag ), by reading in his own, and his colleague’s name, 
a joint declaration, in which they declined all responsi¬ 
bility for the results of the law against the socialists. 

“For us,” said he, “nothing will be changed in 
our situation. We will continue to walk in the path 
that duty marks out to us; we will still make every 
effort to obtain, as soon as possible, a final victory for 
the cause of socialistic democracy. That victory is 
the necessary consequence of the political and social 
movement of the nineteenth century/’ 

From what we have said, we can, at least, conclude 
that German socialism has lost no ground, notwith¬ 
standing the vigorous effort made to repress it. 
Leibknecht was invited to Paris for a family gather¬ 
ing, in the month of May, this year, and did not 
neglect to call together in the French capital, the 
German socialists who live there. According to the 
Gazette du Weser , he reported the situation of the 
party in the following terms, which we do not hesi¬ 
tate to accept as correct, since threy correspond with 
what socialists have said and written elsewhere. 


i. Session of 12th March, 1884. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 21 

“Three years ago, when I found myself among you, 
we were not very confident of the results of the Law 
directed against us. The workingmen in the indus¬ 
trial centers still rallied around our flag, but there was 
great danger in the localities, where our people had 
not been grouped. Our fears now though have van¬ 
ished. Thanks to the energy of our party and to 
the mistakes of our adversaries, the movement has 
taken up again its brilliant march {elan). It has 
spread, as indeed our electoral successes have shown, 
and has become stronger and more energetic; for the 
Law against socialists has delivered us from the less 
manly elements. The social and economical crisis 
which has sacrificed to capital, the middle classes, and 
brought such misery on the laboring people, by dis¬ 
turbing the equilibrium between supply and demand, 
has not been of little aid to us. In this respect, 
Prince Bismarck has acknowledged what cannot be 
upheld in the actual situation, and in the interest of his 
political views, has conceived a social reform, and a 
system of boards, to provide insurance, and aid for 
the poor. * * * * * * 

The warmth of the discussion brought him even to a 
declaration of the rights of labor. But the rights of 
labor mean communism, and that means social revo¬ 
lution. We are delighted at seeing Prince Bismarck 
with his own hand inserting into the joints of the old 
society the iron which will best disrupt it; we are 
pleased to see him preparing a revolution.” 


22 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


The deputy Leibknecht has spoken of the energy 
of his party. The chief exhibition of it, and which 
had a dominant influence on its success, was shown 
in the meeting of the congress of Copenhagen. 
Congresses have always played a great part in the 
history of the modern socialistic movement. Already 
the congress of the Internationale produced a great 
impression. Afterwards the importance of the con¬ 
gresses of Gotha, and Wyden was well known. The 
congress of Copenhagen had results not less consid¬ 
erable. It was in session from the 29th of March 
to the 2d of April. 

The convening of its members was not made with¬ 
out difficulty. That the congress might deliberate 
freely it was necessary to mislead the vigilance of the 
German police. By dint of tact, success was obtained. 
Already in 1882, from the 19th to the 21st of August 
they were able to meet at Zurich, so that no outsiders 
were’ aware of it, (on the occasion of the festivals, 
for the inauguration of the railroad of St. Gothard), 
to consider the questions of organization, and dis¬ 
cipline, of the financial condition, and line of conduct 
of the official organ, as well as on the arrangements 
of the archives of the party, and for the convocation 
of further councils. From that moment, everything 
was carefully prepared for the congress they had in 
view. The official organ gave due notice to the 
different groups, and invited them to deliberate 
on the questions to be submitted, and to select 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 23 

their delegates. The knowledge of where the 
congress was to meet was kept, until the last 
moment, a secret with the leaders. To put the police 
on the wrong scent, it was given out, that many 
places in Switzerland, in Belgium, even in Sweden 
had been selected. The police agents intrusted with 
the care of the socialistic movements, were travelling 
in a wrong direction, when they learned that a con¬ 
gress was in full activity at Copenhagen. The Danish 
socialists generously gave up to their German brothers 
their own place of meeting. 

At the congress sixty delegates met. The Ger¬ 
man socialists from Switzerland, Paris, and from 
London were also there represented, The delegate 
from the German socialists of America arrived too 
late in Switzerland, only to learn that the congress 
had taken place in Copenhagen, The Social Demo- 
krat published the report which the American dele¬ 
gate would have made in the congress, At no prior 
congress have the socialists, from all parts of Ger¬ 
many, been represented so completely. 

The congress had six sessions and had to abridge 
its deliberations. On the 13th of March the Danish 
police had information of the character of their foreign 
guests, and they were invited to leave Copenhagen 
as soon as possible. Nearly all the delegates had 
given false names in their hotels. 

The official organ of the socialists, published a 
report in detail of the proceedings in the sessions of 


24 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


the congress. It would require some simplicity to 
believe that the official organ made a complete report; 
nevertheless, what the Social Demokrat said is very 
important. The -congress deliberated, as if it were 
a regular parliament. Its sessions appeared to have 
been very calm, and there was none of those 
fruitless struggles which paralyze so many political 
parliaments. It heard reports upon the general situ¬ 
ation, on the condition of the official organ, on the 
relief, given to the victims of the Law against the 
socialists, and on the manner in which the deputies 
had exercised their election to, and in the Imperial 
Parliament. The stand the deputies had taken was 
approved of by the congress. It was shown that 
since the congress of Wyden in 1880, the number of 
subscribers to the Social Democrat had been quad¬ 
rupled. The donations received in Germany for the 
socialistic cause, by persons duly appointed to receive 
them, had augmented, from the 5th of August 1880 
to the 28th of February 1882, to the sum of 95,000 
marks ($22,800); besides 16,000 marks had been 
sent to Zurich; in fact the relief given from hand 
to hand was estimated at 150,000 marks ($36,000). 

As for the general situation, it was represented 
just as it was in fact, with due reverses and successes, 
and considering the difficulties to be overcome it was 
considered good. Since the elections of 1881, confi¬ 
dence in the future was greater than ever. t 

The congress placed clearly before itself all the 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 25 

important questions of the hour, What should be 
the attitude of socialists, if Prince Bismarck under¬ 
took his social reform? If the duration of the Law 
against the socialists should be extended, what was 
then to be done? What was to be done in refer¬ 
ence to the elections of 1884? 

The congress declared, not without some insolence, 
that, in matters of social reform, it believed neither 
in the sincerity or capacity of the ruling classes. 

If the duration of the Law against socialists is 
extended they would continue to follow the tactics, 
which up to the present, have had such good results. 
They would be ready for the coming elections. 
A collective electoral manifesto would notify the 
electors; a pamphlet, in which difficult cases might 
be considered, would guide them, and a board of 
five members would give advice in any matters 
that might be submitted to them. Immediately after 
the congress they would go to work. Only candi¬ 
dates were to be selected who would accept all the 
programme of the party. The struggle must not 
be confined to certain localities, but wherever there 
were any socialists, candidates would be presented to 
keep awake the socialistic conscience. The principal 
directing committee was to be made up of the mem¬ 
bers of the Imperial Parliament, who would have the 
right to add to their numbers. 

Such were the chief resolutions of the congress of 
Copenhagen, which the Sozial Demokrat has dis- 


26 


THE'SOCIAL DANGER 


closed to us. Other propositions had been presented 
to the congress and accepted by it. They concerned 
the questions of management or tactics. To 
deceive the simple, it was advised to avoid all 
attacks on religion . It was recommended, to agitate 
chiefly, among peasants, women and students. In 
fine, conformably to the order of the Internationale , 
and to the instruction given during many years to 
the socialists of different countries, it was again de¬ 
cided to establish Trades associations into which, 
afterwards, the revolutionary agitation might obtain 
entrance. 

With the aid of this summary review of the labors 
of the congress of Copenhagen, our readers will 
easily be able to appreciate the impression it made 
upon the members. The deputy who presided ex¬ 
pressed his entire satisfaction, before closing the 
session. Then all the delegates rising, sang the 
Marseillaise of the workingmen, and separated with 
loud and triple cheers for democratic socialism. 

It cannot be denied, that the congress of Copen¬ 
hagen gave a new and mighty impulse to socialistic 
propagandism. The success at the elections is suffi¬ 
cient evidence of that. 

On the 3rd of June 1883, * n the election at Hamburg, 
Bebel received 11,711 votes, and won. In the sup¬ 
plementary elections, which afterwards took place, at 
Kiel, Wiesbaden, Meiningen and Bielefeld, the social¬ 
istic candidates, without obtaining a majority, received 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 27 

a number of votes far surpassing their expectations. 
Of 48,000 votes registered in the elections for the 
Parliament of Saxony (Landstag Saxon), 7,750 were 
given to the socialists, of whom four sat in the Parlia¬ 
ment. In many of the city councils In Saxony they 
are in the majority. Since the month of October 1883, 
notwithstanding the obstacles of a limited and indirect 
suffrage, the city council of Berlin, has had to count 
in its membership five socialists. 

Every thing comes to hand for the socialists, even 
anniversaries and funerals. On the 27th day of 
August 1883, over a thousand men and delegates 
from many socialistic groups, followed to his grave, 
the remains of Daniel Lehman, socialistic leader of 
Pforsheim, in the grand Duchy of Baden. Over his 
tomb socialistic speeches were made, and wreaths 
placed on it. Loud cheers took the stead of prayers. 
When all the orators had spoken, the son of the depart¬ 
ed approached the edge of the grave and cried out with 
a loud voice: “Farewell! Father! thousands from out 
your tomb will arise to avenge you.” Lehman had 
been condemned for the dissemination of socialistic 
writings. 

On the nth December of the same year a pro¬ 
cession of thousands of men, with red flowers in the 
button-holes of their coats, followed to the grave, the 
remains of the socialist Doell. 

In the cities where socialists abound, all kinds of 
Trade societies have sprung up. The socialists man- 


28 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


age to enter them, and it it not unusual to see them 
gradually obtaining control. The Sozial Demokrat 
in the edition of June 1883 celebrated a triumph of 
socialistic tactics in the Saxon national circle at Eber- 
feld. This circle had been placed under the patron¬ 
age of King Albert. The socialists adroitly procured 
entrance, in such numbers as to become its managers; 
the King felt that he was obliged to withdraw, and 
Bebel was elected in his place. He very naturally 
declined the honor, in the hope of saving the associ¬ 
ation, but he did not succeed, and the circle was 
dissolved, by virtue of a Law against socialism. 

To the many resources of their proselytism, 1 the 
German socialists have added another which we find, 
too, among the French anarchists, that is, the secret 
meeting in the woods. On certain days, not far 
fi*Qm the great cities, on the roads which lead to well 
known forests, certain groups of pedestrians are seen 
engaged in lively conversation. One does not sus¬ 
pect that they are all directing their footsteps to the 
same place; but all at once, it may be observed that 
the roads are not peopled, and the pedestrians have 
disappeared. They have met at the point designated, 
and there, in due order^ deliberate on their party 
affairs. 

1. To gain entrance into Germany, the socialistic publications printed in Switzerland, have 
sometimes to take very strange directions. Some months ago, a large box, containing many 
thousand copies of the Sozial Demokrat, of Zurich, reached the depot in Mainz, coming from 
Altkirch in Alsace. The agent of the express company in Mainz, not knowing the name or 
the profession of the persons designated on the box, notified the police. The box was 
opened and its contents confiscated. At its session of the 25th August, the tribunal, at 
Mainz, ordered the destruction of 7,000 copies of the Sozial Demokrat, which had fallen 
into other hands than those to which they were addressed. December 25th, the police of 
Leipsic, seized at the depot 50,000 copies of an election manifesto in favor of the socialists 
Bebel and Viereck. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 29 

At the moment we are writing, those sylvan meet¬ 
ings serve for electioneering. The ordinary ways 
are not opened to the socialists, so they take others. 
Besides, the newspapers of Germany inform us that 
the instructions of the congress of Copenhagen have 
been followed with success, and that no party is so 
well organized for the coming elections as the social¬ 
ists. To know all their strength, and at the same 
time, to bring forward the collectivist idea, they will 
present candidates in eighty electoral districts ; they 
hope to return to all the seats which they occupy in 
the Imperial Parliament, and expect to regain those 
which they have lost. The elections will teach us 
soon, what foundations the socialists have for their 
hopes. No matter what the result will be, it will not 
justify those who are indifferent to the danger of 
socialism. 

We will borrow from the Sozial Demokrat some 
features which may complete the portrait of German 
socialism. Let us select them at hazard from the 
official organ. 

January 19, 1882.—“Workingmen of Mulhouse, 
only socialism will deliver you from the oppression 
of manufacturers, and from the domination of force. 
Extend a brotherly hand to other workingmen, your 
brothers/’ 

February 2, 1882.—“Down with all Kings, long 
live the Republic!” 

April 6, 1882.— “It is not in a future life that 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


30 

workingmen (le proletariat} should await their sal¬ 
vation, it ought to be sought in this.” 

April 27, 1882. — On the occasion of the death of 
Darwin: “What is the death of the most powerful 
Monarch, or of an always successful General, when 
compared with the loss of this man? The working¬ 
men, who struggle for their deliverance, will honor 
the memory of Darwin.” 

February 15, 1883.—“What brought forth into 
the world the anti-Christian, pantheistic, materialistic 
and atheistical ideas? Was it socialism? No, 
socialism was unknown in the maternal womb of the 
middle class (la bourgeoise ) when they came into 
life.” 

“Those who spread those ideas among us were 
our great German poets, our famous philosophers. 
After them, modern, natural science came to over¬ 
turn everything.” 

“ In the first rank stand Goethe, Schiller, Heine 
and young Germany; in the second, Kant, Fichte, 
Hegel, Schopenhauer, Bauer, Feuerbach and David 
Strauss; finally in the third rank, Moleschott and 
Buchner, and — now when socialistic democracy has 
seen the light — the school of Darwin.” 

“In its youth, the middle class (la bourgeoise ) 
welcomed those ideas with enthusiasm. At the time 
of the struggle against the aristocracy and the church 
they were its inspiration.” 

“Oh! how the times are changed to-day! the 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 31 

young laborer’s apprentice, has spoiled all that. 
When he was small and gave promise of being useful 
to the middle class, (la bourgeoisie ), it gave him 
their classics, philosophies and natural sciences, that 
he might use them as playthings. The apprentice 
has grown up; he took what was given t© him, but 
instead of making playthings of them he has turned 
them into arms. The middle class which knows the 
value of those arms is stricken with terror.” 

February 22, 1883.—“Only the materialistic sys¬ 
tem, gave a scientific basis to socialism.” 

April 19, 1883.—“In the same way that powder 
shattered the power of feudalism, so will dynamite 
shatter modern despotism. * * * * Proud 

England trembles before some few men, and some 
hundred weights of dynamite, and has reason to 
tremble. * * * * They used to call cannon 

‘ultima ratio regum,'' dynamite will be the last right 
of the oppressed. * * * Dynamite, the most 

violent of violent means will be the end of the policy 
of force.” 

August 23, 1883.—“Marx brought forth a rev¬ 
olution in economical science, like Darwin in the 
natural science.” 

October 25, 1883.—“National hatred—as well as 
the hatred of race—has always been cherished and 
fostered by the ruling classes.” 


1. The last argument of Kings. 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


32 

Dec. 6th.—“To-day, as before, we repudiate Hoedel 
and Nobiling and condemn their crimes ' (attentats), 
but to-day, as before, we condemn the crimes against 
a Trepaw or a Messenzow.” 

“Our brothers of France can be assured that 
neither the police of Prince Bismarck, ( or that of Mr. 
Ferry, or any police whatever, will make us forget 
the duties of our international party.” 

March 13, 1883.—“If you wish to keep socialism 
from triumphing, you must suppress modern indus¬ 
try.” 

April 10, 1884. — “Be ready, brothers: at any 
moment you may be called under arms. * * * 

At any moment Parliament may be dissolved. 

* * * Organize, agitate, proselytize, work 

without ceasing, do not tire. Redouble every day 
your energy, until the decisive hour will come. 

* * * We have one means of success, which our 

adversaries have not, it is enthusiasm! Enthusiasm 
will lead us to our triumph.” 

July 17, 1884.—“In vain you gentlemen idealists, 
in vain you multiply your learned dissertations, social 
democracy will remain what it has been, atheistic 
an d materialistic. ’ ’ 

What do you think of this, reader? Decide from 
these doctrines, yourself. We did not believe it 
necessary to call to your attention the violence of 
the expressions in the Sozial De 7 nokrat. The most 
odious epithets are applied to crowned heads. The 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 33 

head of the church is grossly outraged, priests are 
never designated except in insulting terms; which, 
by the way, does not prevent socialists from declar¬ 
ing that religion is outside of their programme. The 
Sozial Demokrat ignores absolutely true charity, or 
the noble sacrifices made in Christian society; it is 
only the dark side of the human heart which it sees, 
and it attacks only the dark side of society. Every 
page of that publication breathes social hate. 

II. 

England.— Very different is the history of the 
German socialists living in England, and that of the 
English socialist. It was in England that Karl Marx 
established the Internationale; it is also in England 
that the remains of the father of German socialism 
repose. We need not then be astonished to find 
that socialism ( collectivist ) and anarchism are well 
represented in London by very considerable and 
very active groups. The great bulk of English 
workmen, though, resists the socialistic proselytism; 
but it seems to resist less day by day. Upon the 
English workingmen — the most numerous of all — 
socialism builds its hopes. The former official organ 
of socialism, the “Forwards,” ( Vorwarts ) welcomed 
the day yet in the future, when the battalions of 
English workingmen would fall into line. The 
present official organ, the Sozial Demokrat for its 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


34 

part, (in the edition of Sept. 27th, 1883), declares 
that one day the English workingmen will belong to 
socialism, and on that day it will not be enough to 
say there are socialists in England, but that England 
belongs to the socialists. 1 

We pointed out in a former study what, according 
to us, was, and is the obstacle to the progress of 
socialism in England. The English workingman is 
more religious than the German; he is more posi¬ 
tive ; more preoccupied with his immediate interests, 
and less accessible to dreams and theories; besides, 
he is more disposed to enter the great Labor Asso¬ 
ciations, which have an unbending discipline, and do 
not allow him full liberty of action ; finally the power 
of English capital is enormous, and makes its influ¬ 
ence felt in all social strata. 

It is nevertheless not to be denied that the social¬ 
istic ideas have gained ground. The Congress of 
Trades Unions, which, in the year 1882, represented 
a half million of workingmen, carried by a majority, 
a resolution recommending the Nationalization of the 
soil. It is true that the Congress held from the 10th 
to the 15th of Sept., 1883, where a small number of 
delegates representing a number of workingmen 
equal to that of the congress of 1882, did present, for 
the same resolution — in deference to tactical rea¬ 
sons—only 34 votes against 90; but the minority 
of 34 is still very important and is not without some 
significance. 

1. Trois annees de I'historie du Socialisme moderne. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 35 

At the head of the English Socialistic movement 
we find the Democratic Federation of England , 
established in 1882, and called since the Democratic 
and Social Federation. The executive committee of 
the federation published, in the month of June, 1883, 
a manifesto, with the motto : — Educate , agitate , 
organize! This manifesto has its interest, as well in 
the names of the signers, as in the principle it 
expounds. According to it, the total production of 
the kingdom is to be estimated at 1,300,000,000 
pounds sterling; of this 1,000,000,000 went to the 
landlords, capitalists, and employers of industry, the 
residue, 300,000,000 only reached the true producers. 
The manifesto starts from that to demand a radical 
reform, which lands it in socialism, ( collectivist ). 

Let me quote from it: 

“We are strangers in our own country. Thirty 
millions of men live on the soil of Great Britain, and 
thirty thousand own it. It ought to belong to us all. 
A long course of rapine and confiscation have taken 
it from us. The organized brutal strength of the 
minority has conquered, during long generations, 
the unorganized strength of the majority. We come 
to-day to demand the nationalization of the soil. In 
the country, in the cities, in the mines, in the forests, 
in the mountains, and the valleys the soil ought to 
belong to the people, be used by the people, and 
cultivated in a way to be most useful to the people.” 

“But property in the soil, is not the sole form of 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


36 

monopoly, which empowers those who possess, to 
employ the very means of producing in order to 
fleece ( exploiter ) the workingman and reduce him to 
slavery. Of the £ 1,000,000,000 appropriated by 
the class of non-producers only ^60,000,000 are 
taken by the owners of real estate, ^28,000,000 go 
to the few holders of shares in the national debt, 
which the parliament of the landlords imposed upon 
the people; stockholders of companies, to which was 
accorded the right to build our great lines of rail¬ 
roads, take about as much more. But above all must 
be placed capitalists, wage tyrants, those who are 
engaged in the exploitation of mines, manufacturing 
lords, contractors, modern slave owners, those who 
in their money, their machines, their capital, and 
credit, are able to find in every conquest of human 
science, every advance in the aptitude of the work¬ 
man, means to draw from the toil of others, sources 
of riches. As long as the means of production, no 
matter of what kind, are the exclusive property of a 
class, so long the workingman, no matter of what 
trade, will be obliged to sell himself for a wage, 
which may scarcely suffice for the strict necessaries 
of life.” 

The manifesto ends by an explanation of its motto: 

Educate! We have need of all the intelligence 
we possess. 

Agitate! We have need of all our enthusiasm. 1 


1. Sozial Demokrat, July J, 1883. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 37 

Organize! We have need of all our united 
strength. 

Among the signatures to this manifesto,* are those 
of Helen Taylor, stepdaughter of the writer, John 
Stuart Mill, W. Rowland, President of the Associa¬ 
tion of Coachmen in London, A. J. Dadson, the can¬ 
didate for Parliament of the liberal party of Maryle- 
bone ; and H. M. Hyndman, solicitor and author of 
the socialistic book, “The Historical Basis of Social¬ 
ism in England,” which his admirers consider as 
equal to the “Capital” of Marx. 

The Democratic Federation did not remain inactive 
after putting forth its manifesto. On 30th of Octo¬ 
ber, 1883, St. James’ Hall, in London, received a 
large meeting, organized by the Federation. Miss 
Helen Taylor, and Mr. Michael Davitt spoke on the 
question of the nationalization of the soil; Michael 
Davitt was frantically applauded by four thousand 
workmen. To-day, a socialistic review, appeared on 
January 1, 1884, under the charge of Belfort, with 
the assistance of the socialists. Aveling, Liebknecht, 
F. Engels, Lawroff, Henry George, Eleanor Marx, 
Lafargue, Andrew Scheu, etc. Justice , the organ of 
social democracy, soon followed the “Review.” “It 
is necessary that the workingmen and those who 
would aid their cause, should unite intimately for the 
great struggle of the social classes,” said Justice in 
its first issue ; “besides, it is necessary that they 
extend a hand to all those who are oppressed or 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


38 

impoverished by the non-producing classes, ( Les 
classes des exploiteursi) The landlord system and 
capital, have disgraced the English name in Ireland, 
in India, and in Egypt. It is time that we should 
put ourselves forward, in recognizing the same rights 
in others, which we claim for ourselves, and which 
we are determined on acquiring.” 

One of the most important manifestations of 
socialism in England was that which took place on 
the 16th of March, 1883, near the cemetery where 
Karl Marx is interred in London. It was decided, 
to celebrate at the same time, the anniversary of the 
Commune , and that of the death of Karl Marx. It 
was arranged that the meeting should be held at, 
and around the tomb of Karl Marx, and an immense 
procession filed away in the direction of High Gate, 
where he was buried. The red flags bore the well- 
known inscriptions : “ Labor is the source of all 

riches ! ” “ Workingmen of all lands , unite ! ” “ We 

are struggling for the liberty and comfort of all! ’ ’ 
To the great astonishment of the leaders of the pro¬ 
cession, those in charge of the cemetery did not 
allow the gates to be opened. They thought, with 
some reason, that a cemetery was scarcely the place 
for a socialistic manifestation. The leaders with¬ 
drew to a neighboring knoll, after having arranged 
with the sexton, that the flowers and wreaths, which 
they had brought, should be placed on the tomb of 
Marx. More than four thousand persons were 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 39 

there, and they represented the principal socialistic 
groups of London. Marx and the Commune were 
glorified in English, French and German. The 
German orator on the occasion was the member of 
the German Parliament, Frohme. The connection 
of the name of Marx with that of the Commune , 
means a great deal more than all the discourses made 
about socialism ( collectivist ) put together; although 
that socialism called itself, sometimes, moderate 
socialism. 

The English socialistic proselytism is not confined 
to London or other large cities; it has spread into 
Scotland; and Ireland is not free from it. Michael 
Davitt, the apostle of the idea of the “Naturalization 
of the soil,” was, at first, a member of the committee 
of the Irish National League: he left it for the pur¬ 
pose of being freer in the announcement of his 
doctrines. The present movement in Ireland is very 
faraway from that of the green island under O’Con¬ 
nell. 


III. 

Austria.— Two years ago we wrote: “Austrian 
socialism has not made much noise since 1878 up 
to 1881, but it is not by any means dead.” To-day 
it is not necessary to say that Austrian socialism is 
not dead, for it has given some strange and frightful 
signs of life. It is true, that it is anarchial socialism 


40 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


which has distinguished itself by a series of crimes; 
but collectivist socialism was not far off, in due time, 
with its agitators. 

In Austria, the collectivists or moderate socialists, 
and the anarchists or radical socialists are divided 
into two camps—they were even in 1881 mingled and 
united—but dissensions arose in the month of July, 
1882. On the 4th of July, took place the bold attempt 
of assassinating the shoe manufacturer, Merstallinger; 
a crime which certain anarchists committed for the- 
purpose of procuring funds for their proselytism, 

( propaganda ). 

This crime elicited such an expression of horror 
that the moderate socialists thought it necessary to 
disown all responsibility, and they brought about a 
first meeting of their followers; but the anarchists, 
by violent interruptions, obliged them to disperse. 
A second meeting afterwards took place on the 31st 
of August, 1882, when about fifteen hundred persons 
were present, who did not allow themselves to be 
intimidated, and a resolution was carried repudiating 
all connection ( solidarite ) with those who preached 
social war, by all means possible. It was at the same 
time declared that the attack on the person of Mer¬ 
stallinger was as cowardly as it was odious. The 
protest of the meeting went no further; one of the 
many members present having moved that an effort 
should be made to unite the middle classes {la bonr- 
geoise) for the purpose of combating anarchism, 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 41 

Bardorf, the chief speaker of the occasion, opposed 
the proposition, declaring “We are on the field of 
battle in a social war; here we will stay until the 
victory is ours.” 1 The moderate Austrian socialism, 
like that of Germany, desires social war, and 
absolutely desires it, but does not wish it carried on 
by the same means that anarchists would use. 

Nevertheless, the anarchists continued their plots, 
and got the upper hand in Vienna. To place some 
obstruction in the line of their march, the mode¬ 
rate socialists convoked a national council, which 
was held on the 15th and 16th of October, at Brunn. 
The Sozial Demokrat, of Zurich welcomed the coun¬ 
cil as one likely to leave a permanent mark on the 
age. Indeed, the council believed that it had found 
a platform that the police would respect, and for 
which a preface had been written in all respects like 
the one that Marx had drawn up for the minimiz¬ 
ing platform of the French socialists, in the hope 
that a sufficient brand of socialism was yet marked 
on it. Forty-four delegates, representing the social¬ 
istic groups of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, the Tyrol, 
and upper Austria, as well as those of Vienna and of 
Gratz were present at the Council. Three anarchistic 
delegates withdrew during the debates, the others 
unanimously separated their cause from that of the 
anarchists, and declared that the “ Future ” (Zu- 


1 . Der Sozial Demokrat, 7th Sept1882. 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


42 

kunft ), which had assumed a tone too radical, was no 
longer the official organ of the party. 

One might then have thought, for an instant, that 
Austrian anarchism had received its death blow, and 
that it could never recover from the stroke it had 
brought upon itself, by its first misdeeds; but noth¬ 
ing came of all this, and we will have to narrate 
in the second part of our studies its sanguinary 
exploits. Moderate socialism underwent an eclipse 
through the promises that active socialism had 
put forth. It was afterwards scarcely heard of, 
except in some few trials. It exercised, nevertheless, 
influence in the association and meetings of the 
workingmen, as well as by its publications; there is 
no doubt, though, that it has not lost ground. It 
has established itself in every part of the Austrian- 
Hungarian Empire ; it has its organs in the different 
languages there spoken : the Spravedlnost , and the 
Volksfreund, (Friend of the People), at Brunn ; the 
L Ar better Freund , (Friend of the Workman), at 
Reichenberg; the Wahrhett, (Truth), at Vienna; 
Nepzara, and the Arbetterwochen-Cronik , (The 
Weekly Workman’s Chronicle), in Pesth. 1 

The socialistic agitation has always had a predi¬ 
lection for Hungary, where the way is better pre¬ 
pared. Both collectivist socialism and anarchism are 
well represented in the capital of Hungary. 


1. Zacher, die rothe internationzXe, page 123. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 43 

Socialism prefers centralized countries where its 
proselytism is facilitated. In countries less central¬ 
ized, like Austria and Switzerland, its propaganda, 
in endeavoring to pass from one to another, finds 
a threefold obstacle in frontier, language and 
character. From that arises the comparative weak¬ 
ness of Austrian socialism. This weakness has 
other causes too, among which religious influence 
may be reckoned first. The leaders of Austrian 
socialism are inferior to those of German socialism, 
and the importance of their newspapers is much less 
than that of the Sozial Demokrat . What we have 
said is so true, that Austrian socialism puts itself, 
of its own accord, under the pupilage of German 
socialism, accepts its official organ, and draws from 
its neighborhood, and its assistance, a great part of 
its power. 

Austrian socialism stands in the same attitude, as 
regards the Social Reforms undertaken by the Min¬ 
ister Taafe, as the German socialists do to the reform 
of Prince Bismarck. They accept them for what they 
may be worth, without being satisfied with them. 

Anarchist crimes having been committed with 
appalling frequency, exceptional measures were 
taken by the Austrian government from the 30th of 
January, 1884, in the social circuits of Vienna, Kor- 
neuburg and Wianer-Neustadt. These measures 
were almost equivalent to placing the socialists, by 
law, under a state of siege ; they went so far, in the 


44 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


year 1884, as to withdraw from trial, by jury, certain 
specified crimes and delinquencies, and to transfer 
them to the judgment of the bench. Numerous 
expulsions took place by virtue of this measure, and 
the immediate effect was such that a regular panic 
was observed, not only in the ranks of the moderate 
socialists, but also in those of the anarchists. 

At that period the Sozial Demokrat , of Zurich, 1 
published a series of revelations very useful for an 
understanding of the situation of socialism in Austria. 
The writer, at first, explains the development of 
anarchism. He attributes it to the absence of univer¬ 
sal suffrage in Austria, the chief cause. It is nec¬ 
essary, according to him, that socialism should be 
able to keep itself before the public, and exhibit its 
success to prevent its followers from being dis¬ 
couraged. “The liberty of the press and speech, 
however unlimited, does not suffice to keep lethargy 
from taking possession of a party; if it be not pos- 
ble to place itself permanently before the public. Ger¬ 
man socialism has that advantage, and has its suc¬ 
cesses, through universal suffrage; and that pre¬ 
serves it from anarchism. 2 We have not this means 
of succeeding. It is not astonishing that a party 
made up of workingmen ends by losing courage, 


1. Feb. 21, 1884. 

2. Translating this in Chicago, to-day, (May 14th, 1886), -we see how unfounded this 
reasoning is. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 45 

and despairing of its cause casts itself into any other 
party which promises it success in the near future.” 
After having taken this melancholy glance at the past, 
the writer of the article takes even a sadder view of 
the future. 

“What have we to expect? The Austrian work¬ 
ingmen’s party is passing through a crisis. The 
power that anarchists exerted over the masses is 
lessened, since its agitators, instead of leading the 
people to the promised victory, hasten, at the first 
appearance of danger, to fly in all directions. 

“Will any good result be obtained from this by 
what is called moderate socialism? We wish there may 
but we have not much ground for hope. These excep¬ 
tional measures are not only aimed at anarchism, but 
against the socialistic movement in general. Those 
arrests and expulsions bear hard upon us. Our 
meetings are interdicted, our societies, and our press, 
are constantly in danger. The Wahrheit (the Truth) 
has been threatened with suspension. Democratic 
socialism thus finds itself more crippled than anarch¬ 
ism itself, for our propaganda does not depend 
entirely on conspiracy * ^ * We dread that 

through the influence of the anarchistical tactics, the 
Austrian workingmen’s movement will be condemned 
to pass through a period of stagnation. * * * * 

Only one thing, it appears to us, is able to stir up the 
masses in Austria, and impart confidence to them 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


46 

again, and that is a brilliant success in the approach¬ 
ing elections of Germany * * * * We will 

consider as our own triumphs, those of our German 
brethren * * * * 

The world-wide connection of socialism cannot be 
better shown forth, than by the stress laid on the 
last observation made by this correspondent of the 
Sozial Demokrat. 


IV. 

Belgium and Holland.— Considerable spread of 
socialistic, mingled with revolutionary ideas, and very 
little organization: in these few words we have all 
the history of socialism in Belgium during the last 
few years. As everywhere else, the separation 
between anarchical tendencies and socialism of a 
more moderate tone, is more clearly marked. 

Collectivist socialism held its annual congress in 
1882 and 1883. The congress of the 4th June, 1882, 
which met at Vervier, was composed of thirty dele¬ 
gates, representing twenty-five associations. If we are 
to believe the Sozial Demokrat , of Zurich, the congress 
of the 13th and 14th May, 1883, at Lieges, was not 
without importance. Delegates were there from all 
the principal, and from many of the cities of secondary 
rank. The congress adopted a platform very like, in 
every respect, that of the German socialists ; it 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 47 

designated the Sentinelle of Verviers as the official 
organ; and decided that all subscriptions should be 
paid into the general treasury. In a word it tried to 
introduce a little more order and discipline into the 
Belgian socialistic movement. 

Besides this congress, Belgian socialism, organized 
some public manifestations. On the 27th Sept., 1882, 
a socialistic festival, with a procession and a meeting, 
was held at Lieges. Five thousand men, in dense 
ranks, marched from the railroad depot, where 
strangers were received, to the place selected for the 
meeting. 

The lack of discipline among the Belgians is very 
discouraging to German socialism, and great efforts 
are made by Germans to apply a remedy to this 
state of things. They have called to their aid their 
leaders from beyond the Rhine. The deputy Voll- 
mar, invited by groups of both Belgian and German 
socialists, has, on many occasions, visited Belgium. 
He welcomed, and encouraged the delegates at the 
congress of Verviers; and addressed, in French, the 
socialists united at Lieges, on the 27th Sept., 1882; 
two days after he harangued their brethren at 
Brussels. In 1883, we find Mr. de Vollmar again 
at Antwerp on 18th February, and at Ghent the day 
following. According to the Sozial Demokrat, he 
had a triumphal march. “ Belgium,” says that 
periodical, after pointing out the importance to be 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


48 

attached to the mission ol Mr. de Vollmar, “does 
not lack socialists, convinced and determined, but it 
is entirely without organization. When speaking of 
the Belgian socialistic party, we only refer to men who 
hold the same ideas, and not to men united and 
grouped, for the purpose of attaining a definite 
political result. The consequences of such a condi¬ 
tion are easily felt; in the Borinage, for example, 
proselytism is less active, and a number of the 
associates has fallen off, and of the many working¬ 
men’s organs, which had been successfully estab¬ 
lished, only two remain, the Sentinel , of Verviers, 
and the Toekomst (The Future), of Ghent. The 
brave workmen, though, of Ghent, must be consid¬ 
ered as exceptions and examples to others. The 
society of weavers, particularly, is solidly organized, 
and it is one of the rallying bodies of the working¬ 
men’s movement. 1 

Since the Sozial Demokrat wrote those lines, 
Belgian socialism has scored some successes. The 
socialistic organ, the Werker, has reappeared in 
Antwerp in the month of May, 1884, and the 
Voix de l ’ Ouvrier, in the month of July, in Brus¬ 
sels. In the elections of the month of May, which pro¬ 
duced such sensation, the socialistic ticket received 
fifteen hundred votes in Brussels. And as we are 
writing, an alliance between the socialists and the 


1. Der Sozial Demokrat, March 8, 1883. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 49 

liberal party has been proposed by the leaders of the 
latter, for the approaching municipal elections; some 
seats being promised to the socialists in exchange 
for their votes for the liberal candidates. 

Socialism found it very difficult to get entrance 
into Holland, as there are few important industries 
in the country; and the population is religious, in 
general; but during the last two years, the anti¬ 
social proselytism, has made some progress in the 
Hague, Amsterdam and Rotterdam, and other cities. 
Socialism in Holland, though, is under much better 
discipline than in Belgium. 

Twenty delegates sat at the congress of Rotter¬ 
dam, 24th Dec., 1882. The report of the directing 
committee, recognized serious gains, due to the in¬ 
fluence of the official organ, Rechtvoor Allen , (Justice 
for all), edited by F. Domela Nieuwenhuis, an ex¬ 
preacher. The congress decided on creating a fund 
to aid workingmen on strikes. The Dutch socialists 
are grouped in six sections, and the Hague was 
selected, as the seat of the central director. 

The socialist agitation in Holland took another 
flight on the occasion, in the month of August, 1883, 
of the opening of the Colonial Exposition at Amster¬ 
dam. Expositions have always been for the socialists 
opportunities for rendezvous which they never neg¬ 
lect. Here let us quote the sayings of a correspon¬ 
dent of the Sozial Demokrat , of Zurich. “ Our cause 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


50 

is gainingground in Holland. Our organ, the Recht 
voor Allen , is sold publicly in the streets of Amster¬ 
dam, the Hague, and Rotterdam. Its circulation has 
increased in a marvelous manner, and there are 
grounds for believing that it will soon be able to 
appear twice a week. Personal agitation is not 
neglected. Our brave and indefatigable Domela 
Nieuwenhuis is always on the march; and the meet¬ 
ings which he orgaaizes have great success. Two 
years ago, and the word socialism was unheard in 
the towns on the borders of the Zaan, while now at 
Koog we have a meeting place, where we deliberate 
without obstacle; last fortnight gave, indeed, happy 
days to us. Eighty French brothers had arrived to 
visit the Exposition ; they had been delegated by the 
syndicates of Paris, Marseilles and Niort. The 
French government had paid their travelling expen¬ 
ses , but that did not prevent our brothers from France 
from doing something for socialism. We held a joint 
meeting, which succeeded perfectly; and the subjects 
considered have not given much tranquility to the 
press, unfriendly to us. That press which has so 
much to say for liberty in Flollaiid is beside itself in 
the light of the success of democratic socialism, and 
calls loudly for the police. * * * *” 

This correspondence was published in the edition 
of the 30th August; that of 23d August gave the 
text of the peroration of the speech which the inde¬ 
fatigable Domela Niewwenhuis addressed to the 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 51 

French guests in the meeting got up in their honor. 
“For you, as for us,” said he, “there is only one 
nationality; that is humanity. For you, as for us, 
there is but one country; that is the earth. For 
you, as for us, there is but one flag; it is that of toil. 
For you, as for us, there is but one religion ; and that 
is the desire to procure for all men whatever happi¬ 
ness is possible.” The assembly hearing these words, 
voted, with unanimous applause, a resolution pro¬ 
claiming the intimate connection (' solidarite ') of the 
workingmen of all lands, and the necessity of estab¬ 
lishing among them permanent relations. 

The zeal of the socialists in Holland, felt, of course, 
the impetus thus given to their movement. On the 
17th September, on the occasion of the solemn open¬ 
ing of the States-General, they made a manifesta¬ 
tion in favor of universal suffrage at the moment the 
King was leaving the legislative palace. They fol¬ 
lowed the royal procession with banners bearing the 
inscription, “Universal Suffrage ! ” 

In the month of November, 1883, the Journal des 
Debats published a correspondence clearly admitting 
the apprehensions inspired by the revolutionary 
movement in Holland. 

“In the commercial and manufacturing cities, and 
particularly in Amsterdam and Rotterdam, around 
the outer walls ( singels ) and near the canals ( grach - 
ten) of all descriptions, beyond where, houses large 
and charming in their cleanliness, are reflected in the 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


52 

canals, extends a net-work of narrow alleys, and 
miserable huts, in which is crowded the innumerable 
army of toilers, a vast camp of misery, where festers 
a nameless population. If we may still count there a 
number more or less loyal to the faith of their fathers, 
and to the house of Orange, the number of those fall¬ 
ing under the action of socialistic and anarchistic ideas 
goes on always increasing. 

“The Dutch workingman who is slow in commenc¬ 
ing, is slower still in returning, and what adds to the 
danger of the situation is that he knows perfectly 
well—through his own experience—the might of 
association. 

“Socialists of all kinds swarm here, having for their 
pretext the material improvement of the lot of the 
toiler; who on his part listens, answers, and takes 
very cooly resolutions which he thinks will be cooly 
carried out. The government and the middle classes 
(la bourgeoisie) know this, and while laying stress 
upon social differences, feel more than we would 
be disposed to believe, that they will have to reckon 
soon with the claims of the laboring people. Will they 
be able to muzzle that lion ? It is a fact little known, 
but nevertheless exactly true, that at the sessions of 
the States-General, the police had to take exceptional 
precautions to avoid a socialist manifestation in the 
very heart of the Parliament. * * * * ” 

On the date of the first of May, 1884, the Sozial 
Demokrat confirmed the report of the continual pro- 



OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 53 

gress of socialism in Holland. After its information, 
the Recht voor Allen was to appear twice,a week ; it 
had ceased to belong to its original proprietor and 
editor, and was owned by the socialistic party which 
had, too, procured a large hall for its reunions. If 
socialism were in our eyes a lion, like it is in the 
eyes of the correspondent of the Journal des Debats , 
we would ask, “Will they be able to muzzle him?” 


V. 

Spain and Portugal. —Few lines will be needed 
to show the situation of moderate or collectivist 
socialism in Spain, as Spanish socialism is ^nearly all 
anarchistic, To ask a Spaniard who believes not in 
a God, or a Revolutionary, to make himself the slave 
of a theory, or to submit himself to what German 
socialism exacts, is to ask nearly the impossible; his 
social revolution is a revolution to be obtained by all 
imaginable means, and soon. The greater part of 
Spanish socialists continues, and will continue, at¬ 
tached to anarchism. Cantonalism and Bakouninism 
are their favorite forms of it. 

The socialism of Marx preceded anarchism in 
Spain, and obtained some partisans, but even the 
Sozial Dcmokrat , of Zurich, admits the inferiority 
in numbers, now, of the Marxists. To distinguish 
themselves from the anarchistical party, the moderate 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


54 

has entitled itself, the party of Spanish democratic 
and socialistic workmen , and has its official, the 
Obrero , (The Workman), printed in Barcelona. 
A congress, not without importance, met at Bar¬ 
celona, on the 15th and 16th of August, 1882. All 
the delegates, except four anarchists, who had formal 
instructions, applauded the doctrine of collective 
socialism, and the system of workingmen partici¬ 
pating in electoral struggles. Beyond this was found 
nothing original in the congress: its resolutions are 
only copies badly translated into Spanish of what is 
called the Minimist platform of the French socialists. 
The congress expressed its wishes that education 
should be modified, and made obligatory, and not 
sectarian ; that social reform should be undertaken ; 
that the daily duration of labor should be shortened; 
and the labor of women, children, and the imprisoned 
regulated; and that assurance associations for labor¬ 
ers should be created, etc., etc. The congress 
desired everything likely to raise the workman in his' 
own opinion. It demanded direct and universal suf¬ 
frage, so that the fourth class might be enabled to 
take part in political struggles. From these strug¬ 
gles, political power might be obtained which would 
allow the workman to overturn the present social 
order, and to replace the political State by the eco¬ 
nomical, in which society would possess the instru¬ 
ments of labor, and be able to put them into the hands 
of groups of producers. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 55 

This platform did not excite much enthusiasm in 
Barcelona among the Spanish workingmen. Since 
that congress the moderate socialistic party has not 
made itself much talked about. If it has not retreated 
it has not made any considerable advance. It still 
keeps up an appearance in and out of Spain, and 
sent two delegates to the international socialist con¬ 
ference, in Paris, October 29, 1883. 

The fate of Spanish socialism has not always been 
the same as that of the Portuguese. From the 
commencement, anarchism has had less success in 
Portugal than in Spain. At their first congress, in 
1877, the Portuguese socialists abandoned the use 
of revolutionary modes of action, and proclaimed a 
determination to pursue their aim in connection with 
the other socialistic workers throughout the world. 
The congress which met at Lisbon in 1882, in Feb., 
was of the same disposition. Since then there is 
not much agitation among the socialists in the coun¬ 
try. The two periodicals: O Protesto , and O Ope- 
rario , have been fused into one daily, O Protesto 
Operario, (The Workmen’s Protest). The Sozial 
Demokrat, in the issue of April 19, 1883, defines the 
situation in Portugal by these words ; “The repub¬ 
lican idea, as well as socialism, is gaining ground.” 


56 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 
VI. 


France.— In France those who had not paid much 
attention to the matter until after the explosions of 
dynamite atMontceau-les-mines, and at Lyons, as well 
as the anarchistic manifestations in Paris, commenced 
to think then there was something in it; their 
fears, though, disappeared with the noise of the mani¬ 
festoes, and the explosions. We pity men of political 
importance, who, to recognize a social danger, find 
it necessary to see crimes. 

A section of the French press has taken a strange 
interest in the divisions, may we say chasms, which 
have opened in the bosom of socialism. That press 
seemed quite disposed in recognizing them, to 
assure us that they were of no importance. What¬ 
ever they may have been, they are very far, indeed, 
from obstructing the march of socialism. 

We have observed, that there is no question 
of the separation which exists in France, and else¬ 
where, between the anarchists and the socialists; 
here we have only to consider the struggle going on 
in the camp of the latter. 

Their dissensions were brought into existence by 
causes of a secondary nature. Julius Guesde, one of 
the ablest of the French socialists, exercised an influ¬ 
ence which his adversaries envied. He had suc¬ 
ceeded, at the congress of Havre, in securing the 
adoption of the Minimum platform. He had drawn 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 57 

around his newspaper, LEgalite, the elements of 
the middle class socialists. The Proletaire , the organ 
of his opponents, addressed chiefly the working class 
and sought the support of the anarchists, who also 
did not look favorably on the prominence of Guesde 
and his disciples. An incident of the election added 
strength to these antipathies. In November, 1881, 
the congress at Rheims recognized the Proletaire as 
the official organ of the workingmen’s party; but 
that did not prevent Julius Guesde from recom¬ 
mencing the republication of the L } Egalite, which 
for some time had ceased. The rupture finally 
occurred at the congress of Saint Etienne, opened 
on the 25th September, 1882. 

The great majority of the delegates took the side 
of the workingmen’s journal (. Le Proletaire ), which 
was well represented at the congress ; of 335 groups 
Julius Guesde was able only to control 32. They 
withdrew and followed their chief, and held a con¬ 
gress at Rouanne; 41 groups ofjthe northern union, 
(Federation du Nord), remained neutral. 

What separates the two collectivist camps, that of 
St. Etienne and of Rouanne, are only personal and 
tactical questions. The leaders of the St. Etienne 
camp are the socialists Brousse, Malon, Labusquiere 
Joffrin, etc. The writers of the LEgalite call them 
Possibilistes; while their adversaries designate them 
as Marxists . 


58 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


The Possibilists, like the Marxists, have the same 
doctrine of the colleftivist property held by the State, 
but in reference to tactics and discipline, they think 
that it would be better to realize what is possible and 
afterwards to try and reach a condition of property 
held by the Commune collectively. 

As far as organization is concerned, the Possi¬ 
bilists and the Marxists differ; the former consider 
the system of the later as too centralizing, and they 
allow local platforms, not even requiring as much as 
the minimum platform. 

When the Possibilists called their adversaries 
Marxists, they did not intend to reproach Julius 
Guesde with professing the system of Marx, which 
they, themselves, had adopted; they only wished to 
declare that Guesde and his disciples were too 
much under the influence of Karl Marx. Decidedly 
there was reason for that. Marx had taken part in 
drawing up the minimum platform, and the relations 
between Guesde £nd Marx’s school were on an 
excellent footing for a long time. Guesde had been 
one of Marx’s colaborers on the ancient scientific 
review of German socialism, the Zukunft , (The 
Future). Let us add, that Lafarque, one of the 
principal colleagues of Guesde, was a son-in-law of 
Karl Marx. 

The Sozial Demokrat , of Zurich, inclined naturally 
towards the Marxists, and notwithstanding the efforts 


59 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 

made to appear impartial, it did not succeed in con¬ 
cealing, where very naturally, indeed, its sympathies 
were. 

On the other side, the animosity of the Possibilists 
against the Marxists was accompanied with a certain 
antipathy to the German socialists, which on more 
than one occasion had shown itself. The socialistic 
deputies to the Reichstag found it necessary, now 
and then, to go to Paris, to sustain or reestablish 
friendly relations between German and French 
socialism On the 17th December, 1883, the depu¬ 
ties, Bebel, Liebknecht, and de Volmar, in reply to 
some remarks of the Proletaire, made the following 
declaration: “The German socialists have always 
acted conformably to their principles they did so 
when there was danger in it; they will continue so. 
“Our brothers in France may rest secure, that neither 
the police of Prince Bismarck, or that of Mr. Ferry, 
or any other police, will prevent us from recollecting 
our obligations to an international party.” 

It appears that peace exists at present between the 
Proletaire and the Sozial Demokrat; to bring about 
a formal convention of the national committee of the 
party of the Proletaire , and of the German socialists 
residing in France a meeting was called and held. 1 

It is very evident that a great difference in the 
discipline of the French and German socialism is 
observed. This results from various causes. The 


t. Sozial Demokrat, 24 Jan., 1884. 


6 o 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


French revolutionary is more turbulent, and accepts 
with difficulty the yoke of discipline. On the other 
hand, the French legislation has fora long time been 
opposed to every movement in favor of association. 
Besides, German socialism is of recent date; it has 
only known Marx’s system, which the disciples of 
Lassalle also accepted; it has been the law of all 
the groups. But since the great Revolution, social¬ 
ism has been continually trying to find a home in 
France; from Baboeuf, Saint Simon and Fourier to 
Proudhon, the teachers of socialism and communism 
have been many, and each had his system as well as 
his followers. These still, in a great measure direct 
the actual socialistic movement, and they are far from 
having abandoned their former ideas. This explains 
why so many of their disagreements, with more 
or less violence, are made public in the press, or 
in the congress. 

There is, nevertheless, one common bond of union 
among these avowed enemies of society. French 
socialists and communists of all shades, can all be 
nearly classified under these four heads: ist, the 
socialistic republican alliance; 2d, the French work¬ 
ingmen’s party; 3d, the French revolutionary social¬ 
istic workingmen’s party; 4th, the anarchists. We 
will speak of the anarchists in the second part of this 
treatise. The party of the socialistic republican 
alliance presents a mixture of socialism and radical¬ 
ism. Its organs are La Ville de Paris , the Moniteur 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 61 


des Syndicats Ouvriers, and other radical papers. 
It has representatives in the French legislature, and 
in the municipal council of Paris. The French work¬ 
ingmen’s party is made up of the groups which had 
adopted the platform of Roanne. Finally, the French 
revolutionary socialistic party is that which we saw 
established at the congress of St. Etienne. It is by 
far the most considerable, and the numbers of the 
members enrolled in the different federations may 
be set down as from 150,000 to 200,000. 

We do not think it necessary to give the titles of 
the different socialistic newspapers, they areas signifi¬ 
cant as they are numerous. The organs of lesser 
importance shoot up like mushrooms and perish as 
fast, when they have uttered their blasphemy 
against God, and their shriek of hatred to men. 

But we are very far from being disposed to look 
with derision on the internal struggles of the French 
socialistic parties The Possibilists and the Marxists 
may, indeed, resort reciprocally to sarcasm and con¬ 
tempt; the anarchists may answer the moderates 
with fisticuffs or slungshot; it is easy to conclude 
that these maniacs are unable to build up anything, 
but it is not permitted us to despise their efforts. If 
they can not create they can destroy; and they are 
pressing on the work of social destruction with an 
energy and an activity that we are obliged to consider 
with grief and anxiety. 

Divided as they are, the French socialists have 


62 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


their newspapers and their perodicals, edited with 
passion born of, and engendering hatred. 

Divided as they are they find seats in the legisla¬ 
ture and in the general and municipal councils. 

Divided as they are, they are constantly exciting 
and agitating the laboring classes. They are the 
chief cause of the strikes, which are becoming as 
common as in England, and are assuming threaten¬ 
ing proportions, as those in Paris, and in the mines 
of Anzin. 

Divided as they are, the French socialists hold 
their local and national congresses. The later in¬ 
deed have not always been exempt from disorders; 
but they have added to the strength of socialism, 
Their disciples name with pride the national con¬ 
gresses held at Lyons, Marseilles, Havre, Rheims, 
St. Etienne and Paris. To two congresses of the 
Possibilists we must add those of the Marxists. 

The last national congress of the Marxists was 
not the least interesting of them. It opened at Rou- 
baix, at the end of the month of March. The call to 
meet, put forth by the committee of organization, to 
the revolutionary centres, had the signatures of a 
dozen circles, among whose titles we observe the fol¬ 
lowing: The Reformers, ( Reformateurs ), Dauntless, 
( Sans-peur ), Equality, (FEgalite'), The Bastile, 
(.La Bastille ), The Brigands of Lepeule, (Les For- 
cats de LEpeule), etc. Julius Guesde expressed 
his admiration for the Russian nihilists and the brave 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 63 

German socialists. The female citizen, Paula Mink, 
thanked God for the phyloxera in the south, which 
must convert the small proprietors into socialists. The 
day, said she, when the cry to arms will be heard in 
the cities, it will reecho in the country. In the an¬ 
swer to the. address from the German socialists, it 
was proclaimed, that notwithstanding all manoeuvres 
on the part of the governing people, there were no 
frontiers between the proletaires of Germany and 
those of France, as they were united in one common 
effort to dispossess the upper class, (la bourgeoisie ), 
of all political and proprietary privileges. 

On the 29th October, 1883, there was in Paris an 
international socialistic conference, at which French, 
English, Italian and Spanish delegates attended. 
The English introduced resolutions relatively mod¬ 
erate ; but in the report made to those who had sent 
them, they affirmed that the French socialists pro¬ 
posed no other remedy for the evils of society save 
that to be found in a violent revolution. 

The necessity of international socialistic action, 
was not only proclaimed by the congress, but 
verified by many other circumstances. Even the 
students felt obliged to lend a hand. In the month 
of May, 1882, a group of those young socialists of 
the university of Paris, addressed an appeal to their 
socialistic companions in France and abroad; and 
after having announced that their organization was 
established, they encourage them to do likewise, and 


64 THE SOCIAL DANGER 

thus to contribute to the formation of an interna¬ 
tional federation of students with similar proclivi- 
tives. 

To be complete in our notice of the movement we 
cannot omit reference to the manifestation so frequent 
and noisy, of French socialism ; particularly those of 
the 18th March, the anniversary of the establishment 
of the Commune, and of 25th May, the anniversary 
of its defeat. 

The 18th March has become the international holi¬ 
day of socialism. All divisions celebrate it by ban¬ 
quets, speeches, addresses and newspaper articles. 
In 1883 there were in Paris twenty banquets. The 
Proletaire was printed on red paper. Messrs. Joffrin, 
Labusquiere, and others were present at the banquet 
in the Rivoli Hall. All the orators bepraised the Com¬ 
mune, only one of the banqueters had some modifi¬ 
cations to make it, was the citizen Leboucher, who 
according to the Parisian press, thought the Com¬ 
mune had not killed and burnt enough. 

The 25th May, in the same year, saw another 
manifestation in the cemetery of Pere Lachaise . The 
Bataille put forth its cry of triumph; it frantically 
applauded the execution of the Archbishop of Paris, 
the Dominicans and the Jesuits, and it felicitated in 
a long column the great people of Paris for their ad¬ 
mirable instinct. 

“Do you know,” says the L Universe “that about 


1 Univers, 2qth May, 1883. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 65 

twelve thousand men were manifesting themselves 
among the graves ? Do you know that they carried 
and waved their red flags ? Do you know that their 
orators delivered discourses even more terrible than 
usual ? Do you know that the walls reechoed to 
thousands of promises to murder ? Do you know 
that your police, in deep ranks too, but fearing to be 
overcome, did not dare to interfere ?” 

Another such manifestation was organized for the 
25th May, 1881. Here is how the Cry of the Peo¬ 
ple (le Cri du Peuple ) announced it : 

“It is the forward march of the army of the prole¬ 
tariat, crushed thirteen years ago, now form¬ 
ing its ranks on the ground where its most 
precious blood was spilt. On the fields fertilized 
by our sacrifice they speak of planting trees and 
shrubs which will be the verdant and living frontiers 
of the soil of which we wish to make the country 
[la patrie) of our dead. Perhaps they who could 
not prevent the former invasion, may prevent this 
one, but they will never be able to tear out the idea 
which has taken root in the hearts of the poor, and 
incites them to the coming strike against the use 
of their bodies as pieces of machinery, and as food 
for cannon/’ 

Many thousands of this mob were crowded into 
the cemetery. Songs of vengeance were heard, long 
live the Commune! (Vive la Commune), was the 
favorite cry. The citizens Leboucher; Druelhe, 


66 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


Humbert and Eudes delivered discourses, inter¬ 
rupted every moment by cries of death for the men 
of Versailles ! Death to traitors ! We will avenge 
our martyrs ! 

The peroration which obtained the most applause 
was that of citizen Roche, editor of the Intransigeant; 

“From the watchman in the parks up to the prime 
minister, they are all united in crime and in fleecing us, 
( exploitation ). We too ought to be united in the 
work of revenge.” 

Over the grave of Delescluse, 1 Lissagary of the 
Bastaille, terminated his panegyric with these words : 

“ Delescluse was treated as a mere Jacobin while 
he was the first socialist of France. We ought to 
reform again the army of the revolution. The hours 
of present society are counted. Yes! the apotheosis 
is that of the revolution. Long live the Commune. 
Long live the revolution !” 

The mob howled its applause, and red bouquets 
were cast upon the grave. 

Doubtless these are the speeches of maniacs. 
Certain economical forms may perhaps perish, but 
society can not fall under the attacks of socialism. 
This, all our readers know. But let them not be 
deceived; for such words, such activity, such agitation, 
such an exhibition of all that human passion can draw 
from hatred, such efforts to revolutionize in the com¬ 
plete sense of the word, are calculated to bring 

i One of the most infamous leaders of the Commune in 1870.— Trans. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 67 

about religious and social ruins, and accumulate 
material and moral disasters. 

In the elections for the Chamber of Deputies, the 
socialistic candidates obtained in Paris 26,000 votes; 
and in the municipal elections of the month of May, 
1884, they counted 39,000. These increased figures 
are sadly eloquent. 


VII. 

Italy.— We will not astonish our readers when we 
tell them that the collectivist and anarchistical prop¬ 
aganda are equally active in Italy. For the last few 
years the activity of the leaders was sometime truly 
feverish. The centralization of Italy, procured by 
violence, has not yet been accepted in the hearts and 
customs of the people, and this has been an obstacle 
there, to the complete organization of Italian social¬ 
ism. Local congresses are multiplied, but the efforts 
to establish national ones have failed. The same 
observation may be made concerning their organs. 
The day when a centralized and strong organization 
of the Italian socialistic strength will have been 
reached, will be a sad one indeed. 

Already in 1882 the order of the collectivist social¬ 
ism was sent forth to take advantage of the new 
electoral law, to benefit by the elections, and to 
obtain seats for the socialists in Parliament; that was 


68 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


decided at the conference, of the Romagna in Feb¬ 
ruary 26th, 1882, and in that of Tuscany on the 14th 
March in the same year. The circles of Turin and 
Milan gave the same order. There was some resist¬ 
ance, however; the anarchists who were tending 
more and more towards a separation from the mod¬ 
erates made a lively attack on methods, from which 
so much was expected, and which they considered 
puerile. They did not, though, stop the movement. 
“Voting,” wrote the socialistic journal Avanti, “does 
not exclude shooting at the proper time.” 1 The 
anarchist Carlo Capiero was obliged to submit to the 
resolution which had been adopted to take part in 
the elections. 

The socialist action was not without results at the 
elections. Although Parliament has not many social¬ 
ists as members, it was nevertheless shown that their 
vote was very heavy, and amounted to 49,154, a 
figure very important when the total number of votes 
cast is considered. The cities which gave the social¬ 
ists the greater number of votes were, Forli, Imola, 
Leghorn, Mantua, Pavia, Pesaro, Urbino Ravenna 
and Reggio. Milan contributed 12,000 votes. 

In 1882 quite a number of socialistic organs were 
published. La rivista Dcmocratica, in Turin ; La 
Lanterna , in Florence; II sole del Avenire, in Rav¬ 
enna; and others which had discontinued publica- 


1 Der Sozial Demokrat, 23d March. The organ of the German socialism in quoting the 
Avanti takes care to add that he agrees with the Italian, 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 69 

tion resumed it: La Favilla, in Mantua; and La 
Plebe , in Milan. 

One of the principal agitators of the peninsula is 
the deputy Andrew Costa. When he was elected 
the question of taking the oath came up. It would 
suffice to read the Sozial Demokrat , or to ask one¬ 
self what an oath can be in the eyes of men pro¬ 
fessing atheism, to understand that that troubled 
Costa and his colleagues very little; in fact it was 
admitted by their press, and in their meetings, that 
the formality of an oath ought not to be an obstacle 
in the way of preventing the receipt of all the advant¬ 
ages obtained for socialism by this election. 

In 1883 and 1884 the German organ, in Zurich, 
congratulated Italy on the socialistic success. We 
wish to believe that it was not so great as was repre¬ 
sented, but some progress had been undoubtedly 
made. In the supplementary election, held in the 
month of January, of that year, the socialist candi¬ 
date in Parma, Dr. Musini, received 3,666 votes, his 
liberal opponent getting only 3,351. What is more 
serious is the fact, that the movement has reached 
the country districts, particularly in central Italy. 
How could it be otherwise? Why should not the 
inhabitants, suffering severely, whom irreligious 
men are merrily depriving of faith, not become 
victims of a doctrine which flatters their hopes and 
excites their passions? How can populations re¬ 
spect the rights and titles of property when they see 


70 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


the government trample on claims as sacred as those 
of the Propaganda? The logic of socialism is irresis¬ 
tible. If the state of king Humbert has the right to 
lay hands on the property of the Propaganda, why 
should not Andrew Costa have the same right? 

To judge of the relationship existing between the 
Italian and the French, German and cosmopolitan 
socialisms we ask our readers to cast a glance on the 
platform of the democratic and socialistic party of 
Romagna. It may be resumed under the following 
heads: 

1. Spread as much as possible socialistic ideas. 

2. Organize solidly the elements of the party. 

3. Assist in and provoke by strikes, the struggle 
against the power of capital. 

4. Take interest in all political and economical 
reforms. 

6. Take a very active part in local elections, so 
that control may be obtained in the districts. 

7. Select workingmen and socialists as candidates 
for Parliament. 

8. Favor and stir up, if necessary, popular mani¬ 
festations against economic and political privileges. 

9. Attack constantly and without mercy all religious 
prejudices. 

10. Be ready, through all means, for the day when 
the great struggle will come. 

In a recent congress, where eighty delegates were 
present, the socialists of Romagna changed the title 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 


7i 

of their party; it is no longer the socialistic revolu¬ 
tionary party of Romagna , it is now the Italian 
revolutionary party; because it now has sections 
through out all Italy. 


VIII. 

Poland.— We feel obliged to insert a new chapter 
here in reference to unfortunate Poland. Collectiv¬ 
ist socialism, it is no longer permitted to doubt, has 
penetrated Russian, Prussian and Austrian Poland. 

To establish this fact we will not recall the names 
of the Polacks who fought in the army of the Com¬ 
mune, in Paris, neither will we speak of those who 
have been in the ranks of the Russian Nihilists, nor 
will we refer to the conspiracy recently discovered in 
Warsaw. Besides, that conspiracy was not as the 
Journal of St. Petersburg sought to have it believed, 
of Polish origin. It was a Russian attempt in which 
some Polacks took part. And nothing was proved 
to show that Judge Bardowsky, and his Polack asso¬ 
ciates, were socialists. They were Panslavists, and 
according to our information, were carrying on the 
Russian propaganda. It is not the first time we have 
panslavism and nihilism associated. 

But we have other proofs to establish the progress 
of the socialistic propaganda in Poland. As for the 
Grand Duchy of Posen, it is enough to cite the testi¬ 
mony of the deputy Jazdzewski, who made the fol- 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


72 

lowing declaration in the German Parliament, on the 
2d of March, 1884, on the occasion when the law 
against socialists was debated: “Up to 1878, until 
the law of October, 1878, there were no socialists in 
the Grand Duchy of Posen, at least no Polacks had 
become socialists. But I can affirm that since then, 
a socialistic movement has taken place — indeed, up 
to the present a moderate movement—among our 
laboring population ; those of my colleagues, whose 
duties put them in a position to observe better the 
march of affairs, will confirm, I am sure, what I have 
said.” 

In 1883, about the commencement of the month of 
March, forty-three socialists were arrested at Cracow 
and Lemberg. This proves quite convincingly that 
Austrian Poland had not been able to shelter itself, 
completely, against the socialistic invasion. 

But in Russian Poland, after considerable efforts, 
socialism seems to have got the elements it wanted. 

Let us listen to a correspondent of the Sozial 
Demokrat, who—leaving aside some too partial 
observations—gives a fair account of the condition 
of things in the ancient Kingdom of Poland, as well 
as in Russian Poland. 

“The Polish movement, which five years ago was 
considered unworthy of attention, is gradually, slowly, 
yet surely progressing. All hopes have not been 
realized; but when we look at the difficulties it had 
to overcome; when count is kept of the political situ- 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 73 

ation of the country; and of the hostile attitude of the 
upper classes, we must say, that what it has done 
promises well for further success. We should not 
forget what has been done to prepare the ways for 
socialism; there was neither an anti-religious nor a 
democratic propaganda. One might say of Poland, 
more than of any other country, that all parties, as 
far as socialism is concerned is a dark mass of reaction¬ 
aries and patriots.” 

“ Notwithstanding all these obstacles, the Polish 
socialists have been able to establish in each of the 
three divisions of their country, a competent nucleus 
of sterling champions. They have succeeded in 
gaining the sympathies of the more intelligent work¬ 
men, and their pamphlet literature is doing wonderful 
service.” 

The movement commenced in Russian Poland ; 
there is where the greatest results were obtained, 

* * * With the impossibility of influencing the 
legislature, for the purpose of improving the educa¬ 
tion of the laboring class, it was necessary to con¬ 
fine all efforts to a revolutionary propaganda. For 
that end Warsaw contributed a large quota of agents. 

* * * From the commencement of the year 1883 

a secret association called La Solidarite exercised an 
influence in Warsaw. Its programme had a peculiar 
interest, and abandoned the national idea, which had 
such charms for Poland. It is like the socialistic pro¬ 
grammes of other countries in this, that it decrees 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


74 

that the soil and all tools for labor should become 
the property of the State, and absolute freedom for 
the press, speech, and meetings of the associates, 
religious, civil and national equality, complete eman¬ 
cipation of women, etc. It insists upon a complete 
union ( Solidarite ) of the toilers of both sexes, all 
creeds and all nationalties. 1 

The socialistic group finally succeeded in getting 
an organ secretly printed in the city. The Proleta¬ 
riate ?, whose character may be learned from its motto: 
Liberty! Manufactories ! Soil! Workingmen (firo- 
letaires ) of all countries, unite! Another of the 
Polish socialistic organs, the Przedeswit , is printed in 
Geneva. It was the first to publish the Soliderate , 
and it called on the Polish laborers to forget the 
national struggle, and to commence a social one. 
“The Polish laborer,” 2 said it, “has remained too 
long in his torpor. * * * The national struggles 

by uniting all Poles against the foreigner, have 
destroyed in the hearts of the laborers, the sentiment 
of their social condition. They thought they saw in 
national independence a remedy for all their evils, 
and their attention was drawn away from die real 
source of their misery. * * * It is necessary to 

emancipate themselves from the thralldom of the 
privileged classes and commence a struggle with 

1. Der Sozial Deinokrat. 

2. In the month of December, 1883, the German police succeeded in seizing, in Salesia, 
thirteen different publications of socialistic propaganda in the Polish language. They were 
printed in Geneva, Paris, Warsaw and Cracow. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 75 

them. A union with the down trodden of all other 
nationalities should be established.” 

About the commencement of the year 1883, a 
pamphlet was published by one of the old leaders of 
German socialism, Frederick Engels, entitled, From 
Utopia to Science! History of the Development of 
Socialism. This made a stir among the socialists; it 
was translated into many languages, not omitting the 
Polish, and the latter translation was published in 
Geneva, from the same press, in the same city which 
puts forth the Polish socialistic organ. Evidently 
socialism is making headway in Poland, and it is to 
be hoped that to the woes which have fallen on that 
unhappy country will not be added the worst—a 
fierce war of social classes. 

Since the month of May, Polish socialism possesses 
a monthly review, published abroad: Walka klas , 
(The Struggle of the Social Classes). 

We end this chapter by recalling a tragic event 
which happened in June 1884; it teaches thaf the 
Poles have learned something from the nihilists, and 
that they are not alarmed at the means to be used to 
reach their union. A member of the socialistic group 
of Warsaw was assassinated as an informer. The 
Central Committee issused secretely the following 
proclamations: 

“Considering that irrefutable evidence establishes 
the fact that Francis Helscher, member of the asso¬ 
ciation of laborers ( proletariat ) in Zgierz, (Russian 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


76 

Poland), has become an informer, without being able 
to adduce the least excuse. 

The Central Committee decides: 

1. To prevent Francis Helcher from doing injury 
to the association. 

2. To punish him for his treason. 

a. The said Helscher is condemned to .death. 

b. The committee of workmen at Zgierz is 

charged with the execution of the sen¬ 
tence. 

Warsaw, 28th May. 

This sentence was executed on 6th June of this 
year. 

(Signed) Central Committee . 1 

The Sozial Democrat thinks this proclamation 
requires no comment, and so do we, but for very 
different reasons. 

IX. 

Russia.— The study of the Russian revolutionary 
movements belongs rather to the second part of our 
work. Nevertheless we believe we ought to call 
attention to the efforts for the propagation of social¬ 
ism during the last two years. The relation of these 
Russian and German revolutionaries have become 
more intimate and frequent. Wera Sassulitsch wrote 


1 . Der Sozial Democrat, 3d July 1884. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 77 

to the German socialists at their reunion, in Zurich, 
on February 12th, 1882; a correspondence between 
the Russian revolutionary, Lawroff, and the German 
socialist, Vollmar was held in the month of March in 
the same year. About that time, too, appeared in 
Russia, the second edition of the Manifesto of the 
Communist party , by Karl Marx. 

Lawroff is a socialist; he desires that property 
should be collective, but he is satisfied if it be held 
collectively by the Commune. He does not put forth 
insurrection as Bakounine does for a means to obtain 
his end. He insists first upon educating the people 
as the Germans are, with socialistic ideas. He has 
recently, perhaps, changed his tactics, but he is a 
socialist before all. 

Ru§sian socialism has many organs. The editor 
of one of them, The Tscherny Peredjel , Plechanoff, 
has said in his introduction to the translation of the 
Manifesto of the Communist party : “The socialistic 
movement in Russia is not confined to those social 
strata, which people are accustomed to call the 
youth of the universities, the laborers of intelligence, 
and so forth. The workmen of our industrial centres 
have in their turn commenced to reflect, and are 
looking forward for their deliverence. Persecution 
on the part of the government can do nothing; the 
associations formed among the laborers are holding 
their ground, and even progressing. 

At the same time the socialistic proselytism is 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


78 

always growing, and greater and greater is the 
demand for the popular pamphlets which explains its 
principles. It is very desirable that the literature 
furnished to the laborers should abandon the crooked 
way of the doctrines, more or less false, of Roudhon, 
to spread the teachings of Marx and Engels. 1 

In the month of May, 1883, appeared in Geneva, 
the Almanack of the Narodnaja Wolja. It con¬ 
tained an article of Lawroff, called: Review of Rus¬ 
sian socialis 7 n in the past and present , The old 
revolutionary retracted the origin of the movement, 
which had brought upon him, public attention. It 
had become serious in the time of the Internationale . 
It had banished, said he, the hypocritical dreams of 
political liberalism, it found a scientific support in 
the workmen’s socialism of the Internationale , and it 
was executed by the example of the revolutionary 
heroism of the Commune in Paris! 

After having shown how the socialism of Western 
Europe, became the basis of the movement in Rus¬ 
sia, Lawroff speaks of the energetic propaganda 
among the cultivated and laboring classes, as well of 
the creation of a revolutionary socialistic literature; 
he takes note of the difficulties which arise, the dis¬ 
sensions which he has seen arising, the struggles that 
had to be made, and the bitter repression which 
ensued. He explains in fine, how all the parties 


1 . Sozial Demokrat, Nov. 23, 1882. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 79 

recently, by one common accord, united with the 
party of the Narodnaja Wolja; this is the conclu¬ 
sion of his article: 

“The near future will tell whether this union of the 
different revolutionary parties can be maintained. * * 
Whatever may come, socialism has performed and 
maintained a work which can never be blotted from 
the history of Russia. It has succeeded in adopting 
the tactics of Western socialism to the special condi¬ 
tion of the Russian Empire. Great obstacles were 
in the way, but there was no despondency, none of 
the principles of socialism were abandoned, no arms 
surrendered. * * * After ten years of struggle 

it stands erect and alone, face to face with a super¬ 
annuated despotism, which continues to exist, thanks 
to the incapacity of Russian liberalism. As for the 
victory, the revolutionary only expect it from the 
hands of the people. It will be had, in the day when 
they will be imbued with the principles of collective 
toil and collective property , which alone have the 
power of bringing about a successful social revolu¬ 
tion in Russia as well as elsewhere.” 

These words of one of the principal chiefs, dis¬ 
pense us from all comments. They explain to us 
how the too famous Wera Sassulitsch could under¬ 
take, in her time, to propagate collectivist socialism 
by publishing at Geneva, in the commencement of 
the year, a translation of F. Engels’ pamphlet on the 
transition from an Utopian to a scientific socialism. 


8o 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


Wera, the shot of whose revolver ushered in a long 
series of nihilistic deeds, says in the introduction to 
the pamphlet that the working class must be taught 
the knowledge of its social strength. “And for that 
end,” adds she, “let us put aside all apprehension of 
the inefficiency of the theory of scientific socialism. 
Let us not fear that it will bring our revolution to 
barren procrastination. We must endeavor to study 
the theory well, and deeply, to avoid having the 
appearance of copying seriously our brethren of 
Western Europe. We ought to be in a condition to 
enter the struggle with independence, and to be able 
to give the movement a character corresponding to 
our country.” 1 


X. 

Scandanavia —Socialism made an early entrance 
into Denmark, in consequence of a false liberalism; 
and a large increase in the laboring classes. There 
was a period of its development marked by a pause 
produced by the inglorious adventures of the agita¬ 
tors, Pio and .Geleff, the encouragment received from 
Germany contributed to keep the movements alive, 
and since the year 1883, it has attracted attention. 

X. Quoted by the Sozial Demokrat, Jan. 13, 1884. Some months ago, the Russian social¬ 
istic group, known as the Liberator of Labor , published its platform from which we make 
this extract: “The group of the Liberator of Labor has for its aim, to propagate socialistic 
ideas in Russia, and to unite there all the elements of socialistic labor party. * * * * 

“To obtain a constitution useful to laborers, the leaders must set about organizing secret 
societies among the workmen in the large industrial centres.”— Sozial Demokrat, Aug. 14th, 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 81 


The socialists of Copenhagen organized a procession 
in which 20 circles of workingmen appeared with 31 
red banners. The subscription to the Sozial Demo- 
krat were greatly increased; and on the first of 
December it enlarged its form. 

An extremely powerful impulse was given to 
Danish socialism by the famous congress of the Ger¬ 
mans, held in Copenhagen in the rooms of the Danes, 
from the 29th of March to the 2d of April, 1883. 
Starting from that, Danish socialism advanced from 
enterprise to enterprise, from success to success, 
from audacity to greater audacity. The Sozial Dem- 
okrat , published in Copenhagen, has a daily circula¬ 
tion of 13,000; a weekly organ of the party appears 
at Aarhus. In the election of 25th June, last, seats 
were won in the Danish parliament (. Folkething ) for 
two social lists, and for the friends of the movement. 
At Copenhagen, P. Holm, a tailor, and one of the 
leaders of the party, was elected by 5,385 votes 
against 4,493 obtained by his opponent, Prof. Goos, 
editor of the Dagbladet. In 1872, the same constit¬ 
uency only gave the socialist, Pio, 192 votes. Twenty 
days after the election, on the 5th June, a triple 
manifestation was seen in Copenhagen, of the pre¬ 
tended conservatives, liberals and social parties. 
The first two were able to form a united body of 
4,000 men; while the socialists had a procession 
of 90 associations, 21 bands of music, with 80 red 
flags, forming a line of 15,000 men. 


82 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


The following detail may be characteristic. When 
the news of the successes of the election reached 
their German brothers in the Reichstag, a telegram 
of congratulations was immediately sent to Copen¬ 
hagen. The answer given was a general greeting of 
good to the socialistic democrats of all the world. 

Sweden, which has few factories and large cities, 
and all of whose inhabitants, nearly, possess some 
property, one would have thought closed against 
socialism, but it is also stricken with this disease ; 
less markedly, probably, than Denmark, certainly 
less than Copenhagen. 

A man of great activity and resolution, worthy of 
a better cause, has succeeded within the last three 
years, in giving importance to Swedish socialism; 
the agitator, Augustus Palm. By profession, he is 
a tailor, like Holm, the leader of the socialists in 
Copenhagen ; the trade of tailor has in all times filled 
the ranks of dissatisfied Utopians. 

It might be useful for our readers to know some 
of the peregrinations of Palm, the tailor, to learn what 
an amount of energy may be dedicated to a revolu¬ 
tionary cause. Palm got his first instructions in 
Germany. He returned from there about the end 
of the year, 1881, and established himself first at 
Malmoe, where he collected the shattered remains of 
a former revolutionary effort. From Malmoe he 
went to Stockholm where he was badly received, and 
refused a place of meeting. Nothing daunted, Palm 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 83 

assembled about one thousand workmen in a forest; 
there things went so well that the Carpenter’s asso¬ 
ciation offered him the use of their rooms, which 
they used for the meeting of their own members. 
After Stockholm came the town of Gothenberg, 
where the socialistic tailor obtained permission to 
hold his meetings in a Methodist Church which he 
rented. The police of Gothenberg showed less hos¬ 
pitality than the methodists; Palm was obliged to 
return to Malmoe where he founded his proselyting 
newspaper, The Voice of the People, ( Folksvilja ). 
That was in the spring of 1882 The resources not 
being sufficient, he had to suspend its publication, 
and more than ever he gave up his time to perambu¬ 
lating propaganda. He went through all the country. 
In 140 days he had held 79 meetings, and sold by 
thousands the first copies of his paper. Groups of 
socialists were organized at Calmar, Carlskrona, 
Helsingborg, Stockholm, Oscarkamm and Orebro. 
Nevertheless all his efforts were not rewarded with 
success. According to the Sozial Demokrot , of 
Zurich, the obstacles he had to meet were the police, 
and what is called in social language, the ignorance 
of the workingmen. Palm was never successful in 
Upsal, where he gave a number of public conferences, 
and where the students of the University fraternized 
with the workingmen. The Sozial Demokrat re¬ 
marked this fact: “The Scandinavia men have not 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


84 

fallen as low as the German students, who, in the 
matter of servility, are below any criticism.” 1 

The resources of which Palm was wanting formerly 
do not seem to be lacking now. His “Wish of the 
People” reappeared at the commencement of the 
year, at Malmoe; it is the official organ of Swedish 
socialism. 


XI. 

Servia and Roumania. — The relations existing 
between the Russian Panslavists and Servia could 
not fail to introduce into this country the revolution¬ 
ary spirit, and that leads on, in our day, and rapidly 
to the socialistic ideas. On the other hand, panslav¬ 
ism generates nihilism, and that contains socialism. 
Consequently a marked leaning towards socialism is 
observed, for some time, in Servia, even in the ranks 
of the deputies in Parliament, (Skouptchina ). The 
Sozial Demokrat, in its issue of the 12th January, 
1882, was able to announce to its readers, that in the 
supplementary elections which had taken place, the 
radical socialistic candidates had triumphed every¬ 
where except in Belgrade and Kragujewatz. 

Servian socialism can boast some heroines. In the 
month of December, 1881, died Militze Theodor- 
owitsch, not at an advanced age. She at first taught 


I. October 25, 1883. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 85 

languages, and found opportunities by her pen, and 
by personal proselytism, to extend the circle of 
socialism. Being of the school of the nihilist novelist, 
Tschernischewski, she felt called to play a more 
important part. She had studied medicine in St. 
Petersburg, and had undergone, successfully, the 
first examinations, in that city, when sickness obliged 
her to return home, where she soon died. Melitza 
corresponded with the Volkstaat , the Vorwarts and 
the Sozial Demokrat . 

In Roumania an unexpected movement took place 
among the peasants, in 1882. It gave considerable 
disquietude to the government. Numerous bands 
of peasants came to Bucharest, asking that the gov¬ 
ernment lands should be granted to them. What 
produced that movement? Who has instigated it? 
What was the object of it ? The press, the legislature 
and the government made some very strange con¬ 
jectures. They believed in some alien interference. 
They talked of distributions of money, made by 
mysterious hands. There is neither distribution of 
money, nor a mystery, wrote a correspondent of the 
Sozial Demokrat; we know all about it, only a bloated 
middle class (la bourgeoisie ), is unable to observe 
what-passes before its eyes. 

The Social Demokrat explains that the leaders of 
the socialistic movement had had translated for the 
use of the peasants of Roumania, the pamphlet of 
the socialist, Bracke: "Down with socialistic demo- 


86 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


crats!” That with other workings of the same ten¬ 
dency, was thrown broadcast among the peasants. 

“This propaganda, says again the Sozial Demo- 
krat, made extraordinary progress among the 
peasants. Some symptoms of the movement were 
observed in nearly all the large cities. The people 
are not ignorant of the fact that the land belongs to 
them. And they understand, too, collective property. 
* * * They were often heard, this spring, declaring 
loudly that violence should be used against the large 
property holders, and their property given up to the 
Commune. 

The people of Roumania join In our chorus: 

To workmen the machine! 

To peasants all the soil! 

We are far from accepting all that the Sozial 
Demokrat asserts. It takes, evidently, its dreams for 
realities. A certain number of peasants, misled by 
the arts of cunning men are not the people. What 
must be admitted, though, is that socialism has got 
a foothold in Roumania; it is likely to keep it, and 
will not remain inactive. 


XII. 

Switzerland. — Switzerland, which has always 
been an asylum for political refugees, is now for a 
considerable time, the home of collectivist and 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 87 

anarchistic socialists. For instance, Backounine took 
up his residence there. There, also, is published the 
official organ of German socialism. Political refugees 
did not always endeavor to exercise around them¬ 
selves revolutionary influence, but it is different with 
the socialistic exiles; their movement is by its nature, 
cosmopolitan or international; the problem that they 
pretend to solve is found in Switzerland, as well as 
elsewhere. The action then of those banished 
socialists has been felt. 

This being the situation, one might be astonished 
that socialistic propaganda is not dominant in Switz¬ 
erland. German Switzerland has many thousands 
of collectivist socialists, and French Switzerland, 
a considerable number of anarchists. Nevertheless 
the progress of socialistic propaganda has, due 
regards to proportions being made, been less in 
Switzerland than in Germany. Many causes which 
we may have already elsewhere enumerated, have 
brought this about. The Swiss workingman is un¬ 
settled and undisciplined, he moves about, ( nomade ), 
and is not subject to organization like in Germany. 
The socialistic leaders have great trouble in grouping 
satisfactorily their forces. In the month of Novem¬ 
ber, 1880, we saw the Swiss socialists separate them¬ 
selves from their German brothers settled in Switz¬ 
erland, and establish a society apart; the organ of 
the former was the “Voice of the Workman,” (die 
arbiterstimme), and that of the latter, the Sozial 


88 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


Demokrat. To unite, to organize, to group their 
strength for common action was the order given by 
the leaders of both these sections of socialism. For 
this the principal agitators of the German section 
pervaded Switzerland time after time ; they insisted 
just as much on the necessity of a better organiza¬ 
tion, as on the importance of any untiring propa¬ 
ganda. 

Let us give some indications of what the socialistic 
movement is in Switzerland. 

Jan. i, 1882.—The Volksfreund, issued by Conzett, 
from weekly becomes daily. 

March 18th.—A banquet in Geneva in honor of 
the Commune in Paris, the old German socialist 
Becker, proclaims a universal, social and democratic 
republic. 

June.— Socialistic demonstrations on the occasion 
of the death of Garibaldi, at Berne, Zurich, Geneva. 

June and July.— Visitatian for the purpose of 
propaganda of the German socialist deputy, De Vol- 
mar; he speaks in Basle, Geneva, Zurich, Schaffhou- 
sen, Frauenfeld and Wintherthour. 

July.— Two socialistic deputies are nominated for 
the Grand Council of Berne. 

August.— Socialistic festival in the ruins of Voyden 
an immense gathering. The German socialistic lead¬ 
ers, De Vollmar, Kayser, Grillenberg. Motteler. 
Oppenheimer spoke. 

September.— The Grutlirerein, by 2456 votes 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 89 

against 562 decides that Vogelsanger et Conzett 
shall continue the publication of the Grutlianer , 
in other words, the Grutleverein, (the Union of the 
Canton of Grutle), declares that its tendencies are 
socialistic. 

A socialistic section is established at Berne; De 
Vollmar addresses one of its meetings. 

October.— The Circle of German Workingmen, 
by a vote of 50 against 30, seperated from the party 
of the Freiheii't , the anarchistic organ. 

1883.— The movement of propaganda and organi¬ 
zation commenced in 1882, continues. The Swiss 
and Germam groups fraternize. 

March 18.—The anniversary of the Commune is 
celebrated, as in every other year, by the different 
socialistic groups. 

July.— Preparation is made for a workingmen’s 
congress, to be held at Zurich. It is highly recom¬ 
mended by the organ of the Swiss socialists, the 
Sozial Demokrat. “Forward,” cries out the official 
journal of German socialism. “On to Zurich!” 

August and September.— Proselytising visits to 
Berne, Lausanne, Vevay, Geneva, Zurich, Frauen- 
feld and St. Gall, of the German socialistic agitator, 
Grillenberger. 

September.— The workingmen’s congress meets 
at Zurich the 9th and 10th September. Its business 
is to consolidate the German and Swiss groups and 
thus give more effect and activity to the spread of 


90 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


socialistic ideas. Nearly all the speakers lay stress 
upon the international union of workingmen. The 
agreement, long since prepared, was carried. The 
subscription of the German workingmen was made 
as that of the Swiss. 1 In the political questions re¬ 
garding Switzerland. The Germans will abstain from 
voting; in economical and social the action of both 
sections will be in common. 

In general the tone of the congress was moderate. 
Conzett denounces vigorously the use of dynamite 
and petroleum. “We do not combat,” said he, “with 
the poniard but with the ballot.” In the Voix du 
Peuple y which he edits, he sums up the report of the 
congress in these words: 

“The foundation of the rampart against capital is 
there. This new alliance will afford the means of 
propagating the social idea far beyond the sphere of 
mechanics and trades societies, and of reaching the 
laborer in the fields, the servant, the peasant, and in 
fine all of the population which toils.” 2 

The congress of Zurich put new life into the Swiss 
socialism, even more than the congress of Coire 
had. 

1884.— The impress given by the congress is still 
felt. The socialists of Basle who were hitherto 
apathetic, bestir themselves. On 6th April they 
erected in the cemtery of the Lerstal a monument to 
the memory of the revolutionary poet, Aerwegh. 

1. This subscription is but one cent for three months. 

2. Arbeiter stemnie, 15 September, 1883. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 91 

September ist. — The same group hold a meeting 
attended by from three to four hundred members, 
to denounce all sympathy with anarchism. 

“Socialism is gaining ground,” says th e Easier 
Volksblatt , “and those who think they are acting 
wisely in ignoring its existence may one day repent 
of having followed the ostrich’s policy.” This state¬ 
ment is quite correct, nothing can be gained by 
shutting our eyes to the danger. 


XIII. 

North America. — The relations between Europe 
and North America are of such 3 . nature that any 
great economical and social movement made here 
must be felt there. If socialism had not been 
directly implanted, sooner or later it would have 
crossed the Atlantic, either in the stream of immi¬ 
grants, or by the constant connection between the 
two worlds. 

But socialism was directly introduced into America 
by its first leaders; they saw there a soil perfectly 
fitted to receive the seed which they wished to sow. 
Materialism of life and capital exercise there a domi¬ 
nation unknown in most of the countries of Europe; 
the almost limitless freedom of the press, of the 
rights of meeting and association, all in fact that 
socialism asks for its propaganda was offered. 


92 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


Nevertheless its progress was slower than antici¬ 
pated Two causes appear to have slackened its 
march. As the socialist propaganda was entirely 
carried on by Germen immigrants, the dominant or na¬ 
tive element of the population did not take kindly to it. 
Besides the development of material prosperity ab¬ 
sorbs the attention of the masses. The alarm put 
forth by a few socialists is lost in the bustle and noise 
of American life. In a critical movement only is it 
heard, and then socialism makes some rapid con¬ 
quests, only to lose them when the crisis is over. 
Thus at Chicago, where, at the elections, in the great 
American crisis, the socialistic candidates polled over 
twelve thousand votes, in a few years later they did 
not receive one-tenth of that number. 

Nevertheless socialism progresses at the present 
moment in the great Republic of North America. 
American collectivist socialism sent its delegate to 
the congress 'of Copenhagen; and we cannot de¬ 
scribe the movement than by an abridgement ol his 
report to the congress. This brought down the his¬ 
tory to February, 1883. 

According to him the socialistic propaganda com¬ 
menced its work in the United States in 1868. It 
was then exclusively German, and it is only very 
lately that it has commenced to influence the indust¬ 
rial English speaking classes. 

The principal instrument of propagation was the 
press. Many organs were successively established, 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 93 

which had their days of prosperity, particularly at the 
time of the American crisis, from 1874 to 1878, then 
came decadence, brought on by the change in the 
general financial conditions, and by discords in the 
party. In the month of February, 1883, American 
socialism had three great organs. The Volks Zei- 
tung , of New York, with a weekly and Sunday issue; 
the Arbeiter Zeitung , of Chicago, with a similar 
issue; and the Tageblatte , of Philadelphia, which 
appears only on Sunday. Of all the German news¬ 
papers in the United States only one has a larger 
circulation than the Arbeiter Zeitung . 

The organization of socialism was very cloudy; 
discord abounded and the meetings were very stormy. 
Little by little apathetic members withdrew, and the 
radical elements rallied around the anarchistic flag, 
and the real socialist party was enabled to effect its 
constitution under the name of the Socialistic Work¬ 
ingmen’s Party. 

In the month of February, 1883, the regular mem¬ 
bers were only about two thousand, of whom eigh¬ 
teen hundred were of German origin. 

Let us not, though, deceive ourselves by miscal¬ 
culating the importance of a body so numerically 
weak. It soon found means to extend its power, at 
first by its periodicals, which have considerable in¬ 
fluence, and then by the skillful use of trade socie¬ 
ties. 

Obeying the order already given by the Interna- 


94 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


tional, for the grouping of the workingmen in pro¬ 
fessional or trade associations, American socialism 
very energetically attended to their formation. 

In a report presented to the congress of Masonic 
lodges, held at Nancy, in 1882,. we read these inter¬ 
esting lines: 

‘“When under the inspiration of a lodge, a few 
masons, aided by outsiders, have formed a society, 
no matter of what kind, they must take care and not 
leave the direction of it to the outsiders. On the 
contrary, they must endeavor to keep in the manag¬ 
ing committee of the society some few masons who 
will be the working centre of it, and who will con¬ 
tinue to lead it on in the path of masonic aspira¬ 
tion. 1 

The American socialists, guided by their revolu¬ 
tionary instincts, have followed absolutely the same 
system laid down at the congress of Nancy, they 
have sought to find entrance into trade societies and 
professional associations for the purpose of directing 
and leading them in the line of socialistic hopes. 

Led us quote the report submitted to the congress 
of Copenhagen: 

“The Socialistic Workingmens Party of the United 
States, is able to celebrate, it is true, only slight 
and transitory triumphs on the political field, and its 
actual situation besides is not very brilliant; but its 

1. La Franc—maconnerrie et la Revoluiion, by Louis d’Estampe and Clandeo Jannet, 
Avignon, Seguin brothers; page 79. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM 95 

success has been altogether .extraordinary, and truly 
revolutionary, in regard to the socialistic reorganiza¬ 
tion of the trades, and to the influence, in the world 
of ideas on the opinion of the masses, and in the 
direction of the press. Any one who has passed ten 
years in the United States can notice the change 
which has taken place. It appears astonishing, but 
it is nevertheless true, the stream of socialistic agita¬ 
tion — almost exclusively German — has spread 
through many channels and leaks, over the full extent 
of the public Anglo Saxon life. The tone of the 
press, and above all the declarations of the thousands 
of lodges, secret societies and trades associations, in 
which the English-speaking workingmen are enrolled 
prove superabundantly what we have asserted. * * 
The idea of the collective ownership of the soil is 
well settled in public opinion, especially since the 
publication of Henry George’s works. The board 
of statistics which the pressing reclamations of the 
workingmen have caused to be established in many 
States, gives evidence of the insufficiency of wages, 
and aids the propaganda in favor of collective produc¬ 
tion, while at the same time the excessive pretentions 
of the railroad and telegraph monopolists admirably 
serve our system, which claims for the state the con¬ 
trol of all means of communication. Let there be 
the least shock, brought on by any crisis, and you 
will find the elements which the socialistic propa¬ 
ganda has collected, crystallizing and forming an or- 


96 THE SOCIAL DANGER 

ganizations, possessing a power of which the last 
panic can only convey a feeble idea. In this situa¬ 
tion one need not be astonished that the dominating 
classes, and particularly their chiefs, the monopolists, 
are preparing for the last struggle. The moment is 
not far off when, profiting by the influence they 
posses over the legislatures and the tribunals of the 
country, they will desire to use it to combat the 
emancipating tendencies of the working people; then 
the United States will witness events such as the 
old world can scarcely imagine.’’ 

Whatever may be the nature of the future combat 
which consoles for past failures, the maker of the re¬ 
port, it is without doubt that a certain fermentation 
exists in the economical and social ideas of the 
American people. Since the moment when the re¬ 
port was presented the socialistic movement has 
secretly gained in intensity. It is not our purpose 
to enumerate all the meetings, manifestations and 
publications which an active and lively propaganda 
creates. The congress of Baltimore which held its 
sessions on the 26th and 28th December, 1883, con¬ 
solidated the organization of the Workingmen’s 
Socialistic Party, whose periodicals, aocording to Dr. 
Zacher, 1 have no less than 50,000 subscribers and 
200,000 readers. A correspondence from America 
to the Sozial Demokrcit , on the 28th August, 1884, 


1 Die rothe International, page 159. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 97 

informs us that 74,000 copies of the report of the 
congress of Baltimore had been issued. The differ¬ 
ent sections of the party had increased their mem¬ 
bership, and other sections had been formed in 
Beacon Falls, Cincinnati, Evansville, Gloucester City, 
Houston, Morrisania, Providence, Richmond and 
Yonkers. 

A last detail we will take from the Sozial Demo- 
krot. It says that thousands of subscription lists 
were circulating in the United States to obtain funds 
to assist the German brotherhood in the elections of 
October, 1884. American socialism, then, is not 
unmindful of either its orgin or of its international 
duties. 


SECOND PART. 


Anarchistical Socialism. 

The press misuses, strangely, the term anarchistic: 
it is applied without distinction to all violent move¬ 
ments’, and to all crimes of an antisocial nature. It is 
forgotten that socialistic anarchism is a system, pro¬ 
vided with a definite dogma, and with distinct and 
designated disciples. 

Proudhon had already taught a certain kind of 
anarchy, and employed that expression. But his 
anarchy was very far from that of the actual anarch¬ 
ists. It consisted simply of an absence, or suppression 
of government, and exalted absolute individual lib¬ 
erty. Order would result, according to Proudhon, 
so to speak, of itself, and from the free action of 
individuals, delivered from the shackles imposed 
upon them by the modern social system. This kind 
of anarchy does not and could not admit collective 
property. 

Actual anarchism asks for a socialistic anarchy. 
It supposes, like Proudhon, the State or the govern- 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 99 

ment, and consequently does not admit of property 
held in common by the State. It differs from the 
anarchy of Proudhon in these points, that it does not 
exalt the individual as he did, and does admit a 
property held outside of the State, collectively, by 
certain voluntarily joined groups. 

It is easy then to see the distinction between 
anarchistic and collective socialism. For the former 
the State is everything; it alone can be protector. 
For the latter, on the contrary, the State is the evil 
to be suppressed. 

The question of the means to be adopted ( tactique ) 
as well as their principle, separates the two social¬ 
isms. The collectivist desires in place of the actual 
State, to have a State socialistic, and sole proprietor; 
to effect this it pretends only to use the means already 
provided, among these, not least, universal suffrage. 
Anarchism rejects the State, and everything belong-’ 
ing to it; condemns all the present society altogether, 
purposes to destroy it by all the means possible, and 
appeals to violence. Its principal allies are petro¬ 
leum and dynamite; it despises political action and 
universal suffrage, which its disciples only employ as 
an occasional weapon. 

Anarchism descends from the nihilism of Russia. 
There, a Russian, Bakounine, formed its present 
organization, and traced out its method in her revo¬ 
lutionary catechism. We give here an extract from 


IOO 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


the first chapter of the catechism, which treats of a 
revolutionary toward himself: 

1. The revolutionary is clothed with a sacred 
character. He has nothing personal in him. He is 
divested of interest in everything save one, of prop¬ 
erty, and even of a name. For him everything is 
absorbed in one object, one thought, one passion; 
Revolution : 

2. He has broken absolutely away in the depths 
of his being from all actual social order, from the 
civilized world, with its laws, its customs and its 
morals. He is their merciless adversary; he lives 
only to destroy. 

3. The revolutionary is filled with contempt for 
social theories, (doctri nairisms ), and all modern 
science ; he recognizes but one science— destruction. 
He studies mechanics, physics, chemistry, and per¬ 
haps medicine, but only for the purpose of destroying. 
For the same end he gives himself up to the study 
of living science—that is to say, to the study of men, 
their character, their actual social conditions. His 
hope will always be to reach more promptly and 
more rapidly the destruction of those ignoble social 
conditions. 

4. The revolutionary despises public opinions. 
He has the same contempt, and hatred, for morality 
of the day in all its manifestations. For him every¬ 
thing that proves the triumph of the Revolution is 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM, ioi 


legitimate, and everything which hides it is immoral 
and criminal. 1 * * *” 

Recent events have but too well convinced us that 
there are men capable of putting into execution the 
honorable teachings of the catechism of Bakounine. 
We do not comprehend how M. de Laveleye could 
have seen in the infernal rage for destruction, a par¬ 
allel in the Christian doctrine of the end of the world 
and the first ruse of the Dies ira .” 2 

Dies ira, dies ilia 

Solvet seclum in favilla. 

He would have been inspired in looking for a 
comparison in the Hell of Dante. When Dante 
descends into the domains of Hell, and reaches the 
deepest part of the “city without hope” he finds 
himself, face to face with the frightful landscape of 
the rebellious angels: 

L’imperador del dolorosa regno. 3 

Thus when we penetrate to the lowest stratum of 
revolutionary socialism, we find Bakounine. No 
lower can we go, for he is the apostle of universal 
destruction, of absolute anarchy, or as he has himself 
named his doctrine, amorphisme. 

Bakounine is not the only anarchist writer who 
has carried his hatred of society to delirium. We 

1. Translated from the German, The Revolutionary Catechism, written in cipher. The 
prosecuting lawyer read it on 8th July, 1871, at the trial of Netehaief. 

2. Le Socalisme contemporain, p. 223. 

3. The ruler of the sorrowful kingdom. 


102 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 

will see what other madmen have written, and what 
deeds have followed their shouts of hatred. We may 
if there are any ties of relationship between collec¬ 
tivist and anarchist socialism. It is by asserting 
this relationship that the agents of the government 
of the German Empire produced to justify the severi¬ 
ties of the law against socialists the excesses in the 
language of the anarchists. It is without doubt that 
there is no positive alliance between the two bodies ; 
for they have fought each other vigorously from 
Marx and Bakounine to Bebel and Most, and to day 
the struggle is as lively as ever. 

But, if there be no positive alliance between the 
two camps, the relationship cannot be denied. It 
is evident in this fact that anarchism and collectivism 
make their first appearance in any place always at 
the same time; in Germany, Austria, Belgium, 
France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland and America. Most 
of the leaders of Anarchism have fought in the col¬ 
lectivist ranks. Bakounine was at first the colleague 
of Marx in the Internationale. Most sat at Bebel’s 
side in the German Parliament. 

Collectivism and Anarchism both are waging war 
against society; on this point they only differ in the 
selection of their methods and arms. Collectivism 
wishes to obtain a majority, through the workmen, 
over the actual organized society. Anarchism finds 
such a procedure too slow, calls for the aid of petro¬ 
leum and dynamite, and studies in the precepts of 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 103 

the commandments of Bakounine the methods of de¬ 
struction. We saw, one day, in the German Parlia¬ 
ment that the choice of either socialism, the anarchist 
or the collectivist was simply a matter of tempera¬ 
ment. Ardent and violent characters, fed on hatred 
of society, become more early anarchists; and for 
this reason anarchism has more rapidly than else¬ 
where gained ground in southern countries. 

The differences between Marx and Bakounine 
were already observed_, on the entrance of the Rus¬ 
sian revolutionary party into the Internationale; 
their separation was final in 1872, at the congress in 
the Hague, which excommunicated Bakounine and 
his partisans. They established the International 
Federation of the Jura , which gave birth to the In¬ 
ternational Association of Anarchists . It was 

founded under the form of a simple confederacy of 
national sections without a general council or a cen¬ 
tral control. From the first its adherents were from 
the French cantons of Switzerland, the South of 
France, Italy, Belgium and Spain. 

An effort to harmonize the collectivists and anarch¬ 
ists was made at Ghent in the congress of 1878. An 
agreement was reached, which had a short life, and 
the men of the Jura and the Spanish delegates, and 
the Bakouninists, who had remained faithful to their 
leader after his death, refused to sign. 

Our readers are aware how the party acquired 
ascendency. An international anarchistic congress 


io4 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


was finally assembled in London in 1881. It called 
for destruction, declared war without mercy against 
capital and governments, approved of an anarchism 
stronger than hitherto known, and gave the signal 
for a new kind of social war. Let us observe the 
deeds and words of anarchism since that date in 
making again our inspection of Europe and America. 
Although nihilism may have its special features, and 
does not belong directly to anarchism, we think we 
ought to assign it a place in this second division of 
our work. 


I. 

Germany.— The strong organization of collecti¬ 
vist socialism in Germany prevented the rapid 
development of anarchism. Its partisans may have 
been somewhat numerous, and it is supposed they 
were able to introduce regularly some hundreds of 
copies of their official organ The Freiheit, (Liberty.) 
Its leader in Germany, in Austria and German Swit¬ 
zerland, is the former deputy John Most, born in 
Augsburg, Bavaria, on 5th February, 1846. Ex¬ 
pelled from Berlin by virtue of the law against the 
socialists, he went to London and there published, 
from the 1st of January, 1879, his newsyaper The 
Freiheit , which, from the very first edition, showed 
an unprecedented violence in its tone. The con- 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 105 

gress of Wyden pronounced its excommunication 
against Most and his well known colleague William 
Hasselman. The triumphal cries of the Freiheit on 
the occasion of the assasination of the Czar Alexan¬ 
der were of such a nature that even an English jury 
were astonished, and condemned Most to six months 
of imprisonment. After leaving his prison he went 
to America for the purpose of obtaining greater 
liberty. His paper becoming more and more san¬ 
guinary was suppressed in London; but is now 
printed in New York, and is introduced by all pos¬ 
sible channels into Germany, Austria and Switzer¬ 
land. 

We will speak soon of the anarchistic assassina¬ 
tions in Austria. The Freiheit approved of them 
from the commencement. In its 18th number it 
shrieks; “If it is not possible to take actual society 
from its hinges, we may blow it off with dynamite.” 

The German press has frequently called attention 
to anarchistic plots, but sufficient light has not yet 
been thrown upon them. One though, which might 
have taken formidable dimensions, has had made a 
very lively impression on public opinion. It was to 
have gone into effebl on the day of the inauguration 
of the national monument of the Niederwald. The 
deputy, E. Richter, was the first in a session of the 
committee named to draw up the law against socia¬ 
lists on 26th April, 1885, to speak about it; the 
minister Pulkammer did not deny in full chamber 


io6 THE SOCIAL DANGER. 

the assertion of Richter. According' to the German 
press by the revelations of the anarchist Rupsch, all 
doubts about it had ceased. The police made some 
arrests on the 5th and 6th July, and a quantity 
of dynamite was found at the place indicated by 
Rupsch. Light will soon be thrown upon the whole 
and the trial about to take place will enable us to 
learn if the German is up to the level of Russian 
nihilism. 1 


II. 

England.— In England a fresh impetus was given 
to anarchism by the congress held in London, from 
the 14th to the 19th July, 1881. Forty delegates 
represented there some hundreds of groups, from 
the different countries of Europe and North America. 
To avoid attracting attention, the congress changed 
its place of meeting every day. The following reso¬ 
lutions were voted: 

“The revolutionaries of all countries unite in pre¬ 
paring a social revolution. They will form the Inter¬ 
national association of revolutionary workmen. The 
headquarters of the association will be in London. 
Sub-committees will be established in Paris, Geneva, 
and New York. A section without an executive 

1. At the trial the chief conspirators were found guilty and shortly afterwards executed.— 
Trans 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 107 

committee will be created whenever a sufficient 
number of members may be found. The committee 
in each country will correspond among themselves, 
and with the chief committee, for the purpose of 
reporting progress, and facilitating the transfer of 
information. They will have at their disposition all 
the money needed for the purchase of poison and 
arms, and they will try and discover where mines 
may be established.” * * * 

“To reach our aim, that is the annihilation of 
sovereigns, ministers, nobles, clergy, great capitalists 
and those who live by the toil of others, ( exploiteurs ), 
all means are legitimate. Consequently there are 
reasons why special attention should be given to the 
study of chemistry, and to manufacture of explosive 
matters, these affording the most powerful weapon.” 

“There will be, at the side of the principal, an 
executive committee, or a board of instruction 
charged with the correspondance and execution of 
the decisions of the principal committee.” 1 

The London Congress was brought about chiefly 
by the efforts of Most, and of the nihilist Hartman, 
who was considered quite a hero. The executive 
committee immediately puts forth great activity. 
Incendiary writings were spread broadcast on the 
continent, and every effort was made to obtain money 
to purchase dynamite and infernal machines. In 

x. Translated from the German, according to D’Zacher: Die rothe Internationale, pp. 
.73 a nd 74- 


io8 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


London, soon, besides the English section, French 
Irish and Slavonian sections were formed. 

In the writings and the meetings of the anarchists, 
a truly infernal language is used. The only matters 
to be considered were plots and crimes to be per¬ 
petrated or glorified. In a meeting held on the 13th 
of March, 1882, the anniversary of the murder of 
Alexander II, it was declared, his execution was a 
matter of necessity; and the hope was expressed that 
the punishment of all other tyra 7 its was not far off, 
Some days after the meeting held to commemorate 
the Commune, he terminated his harrangue with 
these words: “The bomb for the King, the ball for 
the man of the middle class, ( bourgeoisie ), the knife 
for the priest, and the rope for the traitor.” 1 

Only when the Freiheit belauded the Irish assassi¬ 
nations, did the government feel called upon to take 
some energetic measures. The Freiheit was sup¬ 
pressed. The principals finding no security further 
in London, left that city, where nevertheless, they 
seem yet to have something to say. 

III. 

Austria.— After the nihilists of Russia, the anarch¬ 
ists of Austria take front rank in sad prominence 
during the last two years. From a certain point of 
view these anarchists have surpassed the nihilists; 


1. Translated from the German, according to Dr. Zacher. Die rothe Internationale, p. 75. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 109 

they have added to the vocabulary of crime a 
new species, and endeavored to have assassination 
for the purpose of stealing, considered as a political 
assassination, as if one crime were less than the 
other. 

No population seems to have less disposition to 
violence than the Austrian ; if notwithstanding this, 
anarchism has been able to find in this population a 
soil so horribly fertile for its designs, what country 
can expect to find exemption from its sanguinary 
excesses. 

The propaganda directed by the anarchists, Most, 
more easily obtained footing in Austria, as socialism 
was unorganized. 

In 1881, the Freiheit counselled the workmen to 
engage in the study, and taught them how success¬ 
fully society might be combatted by the use of dyna¬ 
mite. Incendiary writings, spread secretely, and the 
anarchist organ, the Zukunft , (The Future), continu¬ 
ally excited its disciples. Insurrections of the people 
in the streets of Vienna were at first tried; but the 
police stood firm, and these efforts failed. Then the 
leaders ol the movement, entitling themselves execu¬ 
tive committee, decided conformally to the order given 
by the Freiheit , to act hereafter, not in a body, but 
by individual and special attacks, so that dread might 
be carried everywhere. These attacks were not only 
levelled at the government:, or at the police, but at 
men quite inoffensive, or even unknown, provided 


I IO 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


that their deaths might in any way serve the caust of 
anarchists; they stood in the need of money; they 
assassinated to terrorize, to obtain money, and even 
for fanaticism’s sake Here is, in part, a list of the 
crimes set to the credit of Austrian anarchism. 

July 4th, 1882.—Attempt made on the life of the 
shoe manufacturer, Merstallinger, in the hope of rob¬ 
bing him. 

August 1883.— A revolutionary manifesto, spread 
broadcast in Vienna, declaring that it is time to act. 
It ended with these words: “Down with tyrants 
and spies ! Down with those who fleece and deceive 
the people! 

August 10, 1883.—An uprising took place before 
the central office of the police. 

August 25, 1883.—The Freiheit announced that 
Vienna would soon have some other surprises. 

September, 1883. — A series of disturbances is 
seen. Letters and other secret missives are distri¬ 
buted, containing threats and bearing the sentences 
of death. 

October 22, 1883.—The active propaganda {prop¬ 
aganda par le fait), announced by the Freiheit , and 
by secret manifestoes, commences. A druggist’s 
clerk, Lienhardt, and a soldier, Adels, were assassi¬ 
nated in Strasburg, during the night, by three anarch¬ 
ists, Stellmacher, Kammererand an unknown. They 
had expected to have found in the druggist’s store, 
poisons and money. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 


111 


October 26—27, —An archistic convention 

was held at Lanz-Enzerdorf, near Vienna. The del¬ 
egates all accept the order of the active propaganda, 
and determine to oppose, by all means in their 
power, the upper classes, (les exploiteurs) and the 
agents of authority. 

November 22. — Kammerer and Stellmacher at¬ 
tempt the life of Heilbronner, a banker at Stutgarts. 
They rob him and pay over the money to the anarch¬ 
istic treasury. 

December 15, 1883.— Kammerer succeeds in 

assassinating the police agent, Hlubeck. 

December 30, 1883.—At the Church of St. John, 
the evangelist, in one of the suburbs of Vienna, dur¬ 
ing the sermon of the redemption, by Father Ham- 
merle, the anarchists created a panic among an 
immense audience, by shrieking, throwing stones at 
the pulpit, and produced such disorder that a catas¬ 
trophe was inevitable, if the firemen had not suc¬ 
ceeded in breaking down the doors and obtaining 
entrance. 

January 10, 1884.—The broker, Eisert, and his 
family, were assassinated by Stellmacher and Kam¬ 
merer, and the spoils went to the treasury of the 
anarchists for the benefit of the active propaganda. 

January 20, 1884.—Stellmacher assassinated the 
police agent, Ferdinand Bloech. 

In this way, we think, nihilism haa been surpassed. 
The crimes here detailed cannot be doubted. They 


I 12 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


were committed publicly, or admitted by the criminals 
themselves, and loudly justified by the anarchistic 
press. We will pass over the number of dynamite 
explosions during- the year. An effort to avenge the 
execution of Stellmacher was discovered by the 
police in Pesth, and the conspirators were arrested; 
at the residence of one of them were found anarch¬ 
istic documents, and unfinished bombs of dynamite. 

The system of organization, confessed by Kam- 
merer, is about the same as that adopted by the 
congress at London in 1881. According to his 
confession anarchists are divided into distinct and 
independent groups, but still confederated. They 
entertain mutual relations. Propositions made in 
one group are communicated to the other. A cer¬ 
tain spirit of emulation was not wanting in the groups 
at the time of the active propagation , and each one 
was anxious to give some sign of life. 

And indeed they did! They have bestowed upon 
the nineteenth century a species of fanaticism and a 
kind of crime of which former centuries were ignor¬ 
ant. 

Let us examine the two types of anarchists which 
Stellmacher and Kammerer expose, authors of nearly 
all the assassinations we have enumerated. Justice 
overtook them, and they were hanged in Vienna, on 
the 8th August, 1884, the other on the 24th Septem¬ 
ber following. The bodies were given for dissection ; 
their lives and death, their declarations, and their 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 113 

confessions, belong to those who would study ser¬ 
iously the phenomena of the social and moral world. 

Stellmacher and Kammerer, the former was thirty 
year old, the latter was twenty-two, They had been 
soldiers, one in Germany the other in Austria. They 
had been socialists before becoming anarchists. 
Socialistic theories had taught them hatred against 
society, and their publications had indicated the 
promptest manner of satisfying it. The Press had 
completed what the teachings had commenced. It 
had destroyed in the souls of those ruffians all faith 
in God, and consequently all conscience. It had 
supplied other laws of morality than those which had 
always governed the world; the new morality of the 
revolutionary catechism of Bakounine, according to 
which everything favoring social revolution is legiti¬ 
mate. They came to consider themselves as heroes 
when they stole or murdered, and after their death 
their party has ranked them as martyrs. 

All that we have said is confirmed by the confes¬ 
sions and declarations of those assassins. Stellmac¬ 
her read, at the trial which led to his execution, a 
memorandum drawn up by himself, exposing the 
wrongs society had inflicted on him, and the motives 
for his crimes. The first words of his memorandum 
might make one shiver. “Before everything , this is 
my profession of faith , / do not bplieve in God , for I 
can only believe what / know A 1 

1. Vor Allem mein Glaubenbekentriss, Ich glembe nicht an Gott, und zwar desshalb, 
weil ich nur glauben kann was ich weiss. (Vaterland, Vienna, ioth June.) 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


114 

According to the Frankfort Gazette, Stellmacher 
kept up his defiant air to the foot of the gallows, re¬ 
jecting all offers of religious assistance. He appeared 
to have been expecting a rescue by an anarchistic 
outbreak in Vienna. On his march to the drop he 
looked, with a very scrutinizing glance into the cells 
opposite the place of execution, then looked down 
with an appearance of having been deceived. 

Kammerer had been a deserter and was tried by a 
council of war. The report of the military trial 
shows that he had confessed all the crimes charged 
against him, that he had committed them in the in¬ 
terests of the anarchistic party, and that he had no 
sorrow or regret concerning them. His defiant bear¬ 
ing, like that of Stellmacher, remained undisturbed. 
He retained, until the last moment, his murderous 
fanaticism; convinced that he had performed heroic 
deeds, and that his heroism was admired from afar. 
Like Stellmacher he expected to be rescued, and re¬ 
jected finally, as a confirmed atheist, all religious 
succour. 

In leaving with sadness and horror those two 
gibbets, of which anarchism has endeavored to make 
instruments of martyrdom, we are reminded, involun¬ 
tarily of an observation, profound as it is true, of 
Count J. de Maistre on the discovery of crimes, and 
the penalties inflicted by human justice. It is known 
that after the assassination of Strasburg, on the night 
of the 2 2d October, all the investigation of the police 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 115 

were without result. The police were even severely 
judged by public opinion, while really we now know 
that the circumstances were of a nature to plead in 
their favor. How were they to know that they were 
tracing out anarchistic crimes? Could they suppose 
that men who had never seen Strasburg had con¬ 
spired in Switzerland to assassinate in Strasburg a 
man unknown to them. In a most unexpected 
manner was everything discovered, and with aston¬ 
ishment was it known that the murder at Strasburg 
was only the first of a series' of anarchistic crimes. 
The Count de Maistre is right in saying: 

“There-is often in the circumstances which lead 
to the discovery of the most adroit criminals some¬ 
thing so unexpected, so surprising, so itnforeseeable , 
that men called by their profession or by their reflec¬ 
tions to study such matters, feel inclined to believe 
that human justice is not deprived in its search of 
the guilty, of a certain extraordinary assistance.” 1 


IV. 

Belgium.— A radical tendency in Belgian socialism 
was always manifested. Its delegates stood in favor 
of Backounine, at the Congress of the Hague. The 
Belgian International was duly excluded from the 
general International by the general council at the 
sessions in New York. 


x. Soirees de Saint, Petersbourg. 


THE SOCIAL DANGER. 


116 

Afterwards the collectivist socialism and Belgian 
socialism showed some disposition to fuse. In 1877 
most of the Belgian sections adhered to the Congress 
of Ghent. 

Since that period we have seen the efforts made 
by German socialists, to organize the Belgian move¬ 
ment, which is yet very far from being completely 
Marxist. Mr. de Laveleye cites from the socialistic 
journal, le Mirabeau , the following passage: “Who¬ 
soever has not worn the rags of want cannot desire 
a true revolution. Only the workingman can bring 
that about. Let them employ against him all the 
arms they like. Eye for an eye, and a tooth for a 
tooth. Set at work, fire and iron, poison and petro¬ 
leum. Let us make a clean sweep. Down with that 
rotten society of which our misery and our ignorance 
are the foundation. As conquerors we will build up 
another society founded on labor and justice.” 1 This 
is clearly the language of anarchism and the Freiheit, 
of Most, could not have said it better. 

In fact, Belgian radical socialism was grouped for 
many years past, under the name of the Revolution¬ 
ary Union . It held many congresses and had its 
organ, the Per sever ence, published at Verviers. It 
kept up, in 1871, a regular correspondence with the 
organizing committee which prepared, in London, 
the famous congress which gave new life and system 
to anarchical socialism. The Belgium groups were 


1. Le Socialism contemporan, page 264. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 117 

in favor of a formation made of separate and inde¬ 
pendent, yet confederated bodies. They submitted 
to the committee a proposition concerning the use 
of explosive materials, which was duly considered 
by the congress. 1 

In the month of February, 1883, Belgium had in 
its turn, an explosion of dynamite bombs. The 
anarchist, Metayer, who carried the bomb was killed 
by it, and this led to the arrest of another anarchist, 
Civoct, a person too well known in France. What 
had brought these foreigners into Belgium ? How 
were they able in so short a time to form an alliance 
with a group of cosmopolitan revolutionaries ? Do 
we not see here the mysterious tie of the Interna¬ 
tional association established by the Congress of 
London? Was it not the union created by this 
association, which dictated the fanatical discourses 
pronounced over the grave of this anarchist hoisted 
by his own petard. 


V. 

Spain.— We have already said, that in southern 
countries, the temperament of socialists favors an 
anarchism. This is particularly true of Spanish 
socialists. Backounine early gained them to his side. 
Four Spanish delegates were in favor of the father 


Du Racher, page ioo. 


118 THE SOCIAL DANGER. 

of anarchism, in the Congress of the Hague, with the 
Belgians and Jurassions. In 1877, at the Congress 
of Ghent, the Spaniards were true to their traditions 
and would not accept the compromise made with the 
Marxists. Finally, in July, 1881, we find a Spanish 
delegate at the anarchist congress of London. 

To-day, no doubt there are many collectivist social¬ 
ists in Spain, but the anarchists by far outnumber 
them. The latter decided on their platform, and 
their organization in the congress of Barcelona, on 
the 24th and 25th September, 1881 , when 149 dele¬ 
gates were present. The kind of Socialism they 
represented was one seeking the political, social and 
economical emancipation of the workmen ; it aims at 
an absolute autonomy for federated communes, it 
believes that end cannot be obtained except by the 
violent overthrow of the actual organization, which 
overthrow is to be brought about by the mutual 
action of the laboring classes. 

But how are the laboring classes to be drilled and 
disciplined for this attack on society? The Spanish 
anarchists, for that purpose, lay down a rule that 
the workingmen should be grouped into trade and 
professional associations, for which an anarchistic 
leadership should be provided. 

Since the 25th Sept., 1881, up to date, the anarch¬ 
ists have held three considerable congresses; one at 
Seville, where the sessions lasted from 24th to the 
26th Sept., 1882; one at Valentia from the 4th to 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 119 

the 7th October, 1883 ; another one again at Seville 
on the 24th September, 1884, and on some days 
following. At this last congress, 251 delegates, rep¬ 
resenting 492 sections, composed of 49,590 members. 
Le Revolti, of Geneva, rejoiced over these figures, 
which indeed prove that Spain has not seen the last 
of her tribulations. The principal organ of the 
anarchists of Spain, is printed at Madrid, and has 
10,000 subscribers. 

The language of the organs of Spanish anarchism 
is usually as violent as it is impious. The revolution¬ 
ary calendar (calendrier revolutionaire ) considers the 
18th of March as the glorious day for the working¬ 
men, and has special outrages for the Church, for the 
marriage state, and the family. 

Thus anarchism, which has already got to its credit 
the horrors of the movements in the Cantons, the 
arsons of 1881, and many acts of personal violence, 
has recently thrown its energy into strikes. 

May we impute to it the crimes committed by the 
Black Hand, (Mano Nerd) ? This formidable secret 
society excited, in 1882, and in the commencement 
of 1883, a vast agrarian and industrial agitation, 
chiefly in Andalusia, which during six months was 
the seat of all kinds of brigandages, strikes, nocturnal 
attacks, personal imprisonment, without excepting 
even assassinations. The government succeeded in 
arresting a number of the conspirators, of the “Black 
Hand,” and revelations were made; the organiza- 


120 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


tion of the society was made clear, and its secret 
tribunal disclosed, and it was found tha£ more than 
fourteen sentences to death had been pronounced. 
Nevertheless it was impossible to prove for a cer¬ 
tainty that the Mano Neva was affiliated to the 
anarchistic federations. The Revista Social loudly 
refused to recognize association with the men of the 
“ Black Hand.” 

We refrain from giving a decision which the Judges 
of the country declined giving. We will take the 
liberty of saying that if the “Black Hand” was not 
a part of the anarchistic federation, it had borrowed 
from it not only its means of action, but also its prin¬ 
ciples. We read, in fact, the following in its statutes: 
“The earth exists for the common benefit of men. 
It becomes fertile by the labor of the workmen. The 
present organization of society is absurd and crimi¬ 
nal. Only the workmen produce, and the lazy rich 
have them in their claws. Therefore we can not be 
filled with too great a hatred of all political parties. 
The association declares the rich deprive of the rights 
of men, and that all means to destroy them are good 
and necessary, not excepting the sword, fire or even 
calumny.” 1 

Evidently nihilism or anarchism had a word to say 
there. 


E. do Laveleye, p. 276. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 121 
VI. 

France.— The French anarchists have given some 
signs of life, particularly at Monceau-les Mines, and 
at Lyons. The commotion through the whole coun¬ 
try was so lively that one might have thought that a 
period of nihilistic terrorism had fallen on us. We 
were soon calmed down, but those who up until 
then, refused to believe in the social question, felt 
disturbed in their skeptical quietude. 

We have already spoken of the influence exercised 
by the anarchist, Bakounine, chiefly at Lyons and 
Marseilles, since the year 1870. 1 

That influence has not been lost. When anarch¬ 
ism again commenced to raise its head, and to form 
groups, it found in France its very best elements, 
wherever the hand of Bakounine had been chiefly 
felt, and near Geneva where the principal organ and 
its most energetic leader existed. The trial of the 
anarchists at Lyons, in January, 1883, has brought 
to light their mysterious efforts. 

Here is an interesting description addressed to the 
audience on the 17th January, by Mr. Perzandin, 
special commissioner of political police, We make 
place for it as it corresponds so well with the 
intrigues of the anarchistic party in other countries: 

“According to my view, the anarchistic party was 
founded in Lyons, only in 1880, as the result of a 

1. Le Socialisme eontemporain, page 117. 


122 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


regional congress, where the workingmen’s party 
was split in trio, Suffragists and Abstintionestes . 
Bernard was at the head of the latter division, which 
was without importance at first; through his energy, 
it was soon widely extended, particularly in the differ¬ 
ent wards of Lyons and the neighboring cities. It 
became the revolutionary federation of Lyons. 

“On the 4th of July, 1881, the federation was 
already quite strong, as at that date a private meet¬ 
ing nominated Krapotkine as its deputy to the Con¬ 
gress of London, to be held on the 14th of the same 
month. 

“In August the party covered the city walls with 
two manifestoes, preaching the necessity of refrain¬ 
ing from voting, and proclaiming a violent revolu¬ 
tion to be carried on by all possible means. This 
was on the occasion of the election of candidates for 
the legislature.” 

“After the passage of the law concerning the press 
and the right of meeting, the party became stronger 
and stronger, and no longer respected anything.” 

Prince Krapotkine was not the only delegate of 
the French anarchists in London, nor was Lyons the 
only large city in France with anarchists within its 
walls. Right after the congress in London, the 
International Revolutionary League was founded in 
Paris, and direct relations with the anarchists of Lon¬ 
don were at once established; in the meantime in 


12.3 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 

other industrial centers, federations sprung up, which 
affiliated, too, with the anarchists of Geneva. 

These facts correspond with what we know of the 
organization of the-International Association of Rev¬ 
olutionary Socialistic workingmen, created at the 
Congress of London, and at which it was proved that 
sub-committees would be named for Paris, Geneva 
and New York. 

The Revolutionary International Federation of the 
East, which had its headquarters in Lyons, and was 
spread over many departments, was the most impor¬ 
tant division of the party in France. It had its 
special organ, which on account of the many judicial 
condemnations which it underwent, was drawn to 
frequent changes of name, and was known as the 
“Social Rights,” (Le Droit social ), “The Revolu¬ 
tionary Standard,” {LElendardrevolutionaire), “The 
Struggle,” {La Lutte ), “The Black Flag,” {LeDra- 
peau noir ), “The Challenge,” {Le Dep), the anarch¬ 
istic hydra. 

The anarchistic groups in the coal regions of 
Montceau-les-Mines, which have acquired so sad a 
notoriety, had also relations with Lyons and through 
Lyons with Geneva. The excesses committed there 
first brought to light the existence and the develop¬ 
ment of the anarchistic party in France. It is 
important then, here to specify the details our readers 
may recollect were made by the liberal press to con¬ 
test the anarchist organs, of the troubles at Montceau- 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


124 

les-Mines. They could not be attributed to any 
economical or disciplinary measure of which the 
workingmen might have been dissatisfied, as no 
complaint of that kind was made by them. The 
economical conditions were exceptionally good. The 
average daily wages of those working in the mines 
was 4.58 francs and 3.64 francs for general laborers, 
women and children included. Every institution 
which elaborate laws have introduced, to solace the 
sick, the aged, or the disabled workingman, had been 
voluntarily established at Montceau, by the mining 
company. The sum paid by it to the board of aid 
was far greater than that now imposed by a law 
recently made in the German Parliament. In 1881, 
the sum paid by the company was 261,000 francs, 
while the subscription of the workingmen was only 
149,000 francs. The arrangements by which the 
workingmen could become proprietors of their own 
lodgings were very favorable. Finally, thanks to a 
superannuation fund, they could, at 55 years of age, 
or sometimes at 45, retire with an annual pension of 
900 francs. 

During the taking of evidence before the Court at 
Riom, where the rioters of Montceau were tried, 
there was one striking scene. Mr. Chagot, the 
director of the mines, after having given his testi¬ 
mony with firmness and calmness, turned towards 
the accused and asked them if they had anything to 
reproach him. They all, without answering, hung 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 125 

clown their heads. Not being able to accuse him of 
having acted harshly, the miners objected to his relig¬ 
ious sentiments; they both said and-wrote that his 
clericalism was the cause of all the troubles. In 
reading the melancholy details of the long report of 
the trial at Riom, the noble answer of Mr. Chagot 
gives some consolation: “I leave to everyone,” he 
said, “the freedom of their opinions, but I, too, using 
my liberty, will not allow in my place anti-religious 
manifestations.” 1 

The anarchistic origin of the riots at Montceau was 
clearly demonstrated at the trial in Riom. From 
Geneva and Lyons the orders had come. 

On the 13th and 14th of August, 1882, was held 
in Geneva, a meeting of anarchists. The groups 
represented there belonged to the federations of 
Lyons, Villefranche, Saint-Etienne, Vienne, Mont¬ 
ceau, Paris, Bordeaux, with those of the Jura federa¬ 
tion, there were fifty members united, not counting 
the delegate from Italy. The representatives from 
Montceau, although laying stress on the difficulties 
of forming groups there, made this declaration : 
“We are determined on action.” 2 

The meeting at Geneva drew up a manifesto from 
which we extract the following: 

“Our master is our enemy; we are anarchists.” 

“Anarchists, that is to say, men without a ruler. 


1. At the trial, Friday Evening, Dec. 15, 1882. 

2. At the assizes in Riom, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 1882. 


126 THE SOCIAL DANGER 

We combat those who have seized upon any power 
whatever.” 

Our enemy is the proprietor, the master, (patron) 
the factory superintendant, (chef-d ’ oeuvre) the state, 
the law. 1 

Having- seen what was done in Geneva, let us see 
what advice was sent from Lyons. The Droit 
Social , the anarchistic organ, had stopped its publi¬ 
cation some weeks before the riots at Montreal, and 
was replaced by the Etendard Revolutionaire. The 
Droit Social announces its successor in the follow¬ 
ing manner : 

“It will call out to the middle class (la bourgeois) 
culpable and encapable as it is: Singyour Te Deuni! 
Before the last sentence is reached we will have 
triumphed, declaring always death to those who live 
on the workingmen i^exploiteurs') * * * !” 

. The copy which contained that extract was found 
on the table of one of the groups, representing Mont- 
ceau at the meeting. The Etendard Revolutionaire 
soon followed: 

“ A revolution having for its aim a political over¬ 
throw, would be received with indifference, but a 
general conflagration, dragging with it millions of 
famishing people, who wish to satisfy their hunger 
by what power could it be suppressed? How many 
cities, towns, villages, hamlets, where there being no 
soldiers, the movement might commence. 3 There 

1. At the assizes in Riom, Wednesday, Dec. 20, 1882. 

2. Advice to Chicago. 


OR TWO YEARb OF SOCIALISM. 127 

is where it must commence. ' Lay hands on the 
places where the soldiers have been withdrawn. 1 

These lines explain it all. The coal district of 
Montceau was in the condition pointed by the 
Etendard. It had a population of many thousand 
workingmen, with no police or military force. The 
movement (branle has) was commenced during the 
nights of the 1 ith to the 12th August and of 12th to 
13th and 13th to 14th. Destruction of crosses was 
commenced, and the one at the sisters’ school was 
blown up with dynamite. In the night of 15th to 
16th August, a band broke into the chapel at Bois- 
deVerne, where everything was either pillaged or 
destroyed. An alarm was given, other bands came 
to recruit the first one. In the midst of savage shrieks 
the church articles and furniture were burned, the 
mob increasing all the time, marched toward Blanzy. 
where one of the chiefs cried, halt. It had been ex¬ 
pected that a movement would have taken place at 
some other point. That not having taken place it 
was thought better to stop. 

What would have happened, if a circumstance, on 
which the judicial enquiry does not seem to have 
thrown sufficient light, had not prevented the com¬ 
plete execution of the leaders’ plan ? Our duty, as 
an historian, does not allow us the use of conjectures. 
One thing is certain, that the iconoclasts of Montceau 
belong to the anarchistic camp. Its organ at Geneva 

1. Court at Riom, Wednesday, Dec. 20,1882. 


128 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


has not even tried to conceal that fact. It congratu¬ 
lated the voters. “What a splendid commencement! ” 
it exclaimed, “What a revolutionary chastisement! 
It is not possible that so heroic a propaganda can 
remain for a long time fruitless.” 

The organization of the anarchists is the same we 
meet every where else. Distinct groups were formed, 
meeting at first in the woods, and they were called 
The Black Band. Conformably with the custom else¬ 
where, enabling them to meet the more easily, they 
mark themselves by the form of local political com¬ 
mittees. The names of some of the groups have 
significance: 

Revolutionary group. 

Red flag. 

Pioneer. 

Vanguard. 

Red cap. 

Young Montagne. 

When the anarchists of Montceau came to trial, at 
the court of assizes, held at Chalon-sur-Saone, in the 
month of October, 1882, it was very evident that they 
were not alone. The system of terrorizing which 
recalled of the nihilists, at once, and on all sides was 
put in practice. Threats of all kinds were addressed 
to the judges, juries and witnesses; at the same time 
dynamite was exploded in Lyons. A fact hitherto 
almost unknown in our judicial annals occurred. 
Before judgment was pronouced the attorney-gen- 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 


29 


eral asked, and the court granted, the postponement 
of the case to another session, on account of the 
threats of assassination addressed to the witnesses 
and jurymen; threats indeed to which the explosion 
in Lyons gave some force. 

The case was afterwards sent to the assizes at 
Riom. The dynamite explosion at Lyons, more 
than anything else, had contributed to bring about 
this and to throw a lurid light on the situation. At 
the session of the court at Chalon-sur-Saone, on the 
24th October, this was pronounced. Two days be¬ 
fore that, the explosions had taken place. 

The explosions, better, perhaps, than the riots at 
Montceau, will give us some knowledge of the agita¬ 
tions and organizations of the anarchistic party in 
France. Let us lay down, rapidly, some facts. The 
Courrier de Lyon , a republican journal, will afford 
some idea of the stupefaction produced by those 
acts: 

“This is no time for futilities. 

A serious danger threatens us. 

Yesterday, at the anarchistic meeting, a scoundrel, 
against whose provocations 'the law is powerless, 
cried out: 

“ I have a wife and children, and yet I am ready 
to kill the President of the Republic and the com¬ 
missioner of police here present.” 

Yesterday, one of our friends heard some persons 
mingling in the crowd, say: “We are from Mont- 


130 


THE-SOCIAL DANGER 


ceau, we will too soon be heard from.” And at two 
o’clock in the morning an explosion, of which the 
consequences might have been terrible, brought 
horror to about two hundred persons, in the Belle- 
cour restaurant, of whom fourteen victims were 
wounded. 

A bomb of dynamite burst in the middle of the 
assembly. We cannot be deceived as to the authors 
of that crime. They are the miscreants who have 
been terrorizing the Saone et Loire, and renewing 
at Lyons—with more murderous results — the sad 
exploits at Montceau. 

The explosion at the Bellecour restaurant was 
followed by another at the Recruiting Board. The 
public feeling was intense. The most severe meas¬ 
ures, in the interest of order, were taken. The 
sewers and drains under all the public buildings were 
closed. A regular body of detectives, at the rail¬ 
roads, was organized, and every piece of the luggage 
at all suspected^ was carefully examined. 

The authorities at Lyons, Charolles and Autun, as 
well as the police, exhibited great activity. The 
principal leaders of the anarchistic movement were 
apprehended. Prince Krapotkine, who, after having 
been expelled from Geneva, had withdrawn to 
Thonon, in Upper Savoy, was also arrested. Very 
important papers, too, were discovered and seized. 

The trials in the criminal court at Lyons, of many 
of the anarchists who had been arrested, dispelled all 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 131 

doubts of the existence of their federation, and of 
the nature of its relations with Geneva, Paris and 
London. The court, after having been convinced of 
the existence of a district organization of anarchists, 
declared the accused responsible, in a certain meas¬ 
ure, for the attack at Bellecour, and culpaple for the 
crimes provided for by the law of 1872, against 
the Internationale, and pronounced very heavy sen¬ 
tences. 

The accused naturally denied that they were mem¬ 
bers of the Internationale of 1872, no longer in 
being; but with the aid of the many documents and 
papers in his possession, it was not difficult for the 
prosecuting attorney to prove that another inter¬ 
national association had taken the place of the first, 
that an anarchistic federation. He had the evidence 
of it in many letters of the leaders, Krapotkine 
and Gautier, in the circulars issued by the sections 
on the occasion of the congress in Lausanne, in the 
letter of the delegate of the federation of Lyons to 
the same Congress; in the letters addressed to the 
federations of Verviers and Ghent, as well as to those 
of Switzerland and Spain; in fine, in the titles inthe 
bills posted to announce conferences of the “Revo¬ 
lutionary International Federation of the East.” 

We may judge of the activity of the anarchists of 
Lyons by a single fact; in a very short time they 
had held 24 secret and 13 public conferences. Be¬ 
fore the court they made the same impression, as we 


l 3 2 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


know they made elsewhere. Prince Krapotkine, 
whom we will consider again when we come to speak 
of Russian nihilism, gave his history. He concealed 
neither his past revolutionary career or his system 
and his hopes. A refugee in Switzerland, first under 
a false name then under his own, he had been a 
contractor of the work of Bakounine; as founder 
and editor of the Revolte he had been the soul of 
anarchism. The trial at Lyons showed him to have 
been at Lyons, Geneva, Thonon, St. Etienne, Paris 
and London. The life of his life was revolution. 
“I have always,” said he, “labored for the consoli¬ 
dation of the anarchistic party. During all my life 
I have propagated its ideas.” The locksmith Bert¬ 
rand, one of the most active anarchists, made a 
similar declaration. “ I serve a social revoltion, I 
do not think it can be brought about without force, 
and whatever verdict you may pass upon me, what I 
have done in the past, I will do in the future.” Let 
us quote, too, the words of Gautier, the principal 
orator of the anarchistic federation of Lyons: 

“We are some millions perhaps whose delenda 
Carthago means the destruction of authority. We 
believe that evil resides in the very idea of authority. 
We are anarchists, enemies of all government; for 
passions place in the hands of the governing classes 
an immense power. It is true that we are revolu¬ 
tionists, and we believe that force is our last resource. 
We have seen all former methods succeed each other 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 133 

in the magic lantern of government. * * Force 

alone dominated. * * Force is everywhere. 

Here is certainly an anarchist of the school of 
Bakounine. Here modern society is duly warned, 
here are the adversaries with whom it stands face 
to face. 

Our readers will forgive us for having given as 
much attention to the anarchists of Montceau and 
Lyons, as the trials at Riom and Lyons. They will 
understand that the facts produced are of much im¬ 
portance in the appreciation of general as well as 
French anarchism. What we have exposed will 
dispense us from speaking at length of other dyna¬ 
mite explosions of more recent date; of the language 
of the anarchist press, which remains about the 
same; of a riot in Rouboix, and of their demonstra¬ 
tions in Paris. 

We believe we cannot better terminate our notice 
of the anarchist movement in France, than by citing 
some reflections of Mr. Leroy Beaulieu, written about 
the time of the transfer decreed by the court 
of Chalon-sur-Saone, of the case of Montceau: 

“The government—what has not been seen per¬ 
haps in the history of this century — interrupts the 
course of justice and postpones to another session a 
case which already had occupied seven to eight 
days, where a hundred witnesses had appeared; it 
dismisses a jury on the eve of giving its verdict and 
sends back to prison, and keeps in expectation, a 


34 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


number of the accused, whose fate was about being 
settled. What is happening in our great land of 
France? Is it really a social struggle that is coming 
on? Is it simply the government adding another 
proof, to the many already afforded, of its stupefac¬ 
tion? In our belief both explanations are correct; 
it is certain, no matter what optimists may think, 
that in a certain division of French society there is 
going on, for a long time a work of disintegration} 


VII. 

Italy.— The anarchistic movement has under¬ 
gone many different fluctuations in Italy. Powerful 
under Bakounine it lost ground after his death. 
It signalized itself by some brisk enterprises in 
1877, and then after the arrest of some of its leaders, 
declined again. About the same time in 1880, that 
anarchism revived in Lyons, it showed some signs 
of life in Italy. . It was represented in the congress 
of London in 1880, by two delegates, Malatesta and 
Cafiero. 

In consequence of the impulse given by that con¬ 
gress, the Italian anarchists became more numerous; 
nearly all the socialists of Central Italy refused to 
vote at the elections in accordance with anarchistic 


1. Economiste francais, 10th year, No. 43, p. 400. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 135 

principles. The struggle between the moderate and 
radical divisions became very lively. The latter 
agitated a great deal in 1883, they took part in all 
the revolutionary demonstrations of Rome, Florence, 
and other cities, taking advantage of everything to 
keep themselves before the public, even using for 
that purpose, the anniversary of the establishment 
of the Roman Republic, or of the Commune in Paris, 
or of other days, which may recall the memory of 
those whom they entitled the martyrs of the social 
revolution. 

Their most active chief, Malatesta, was arrested in 
Florence, in May, 1883. This arrest and that of his 
accomplices led to vast investigations, in the prin¬ 
cipal cities of Italy, in the interests of law, and it was 
not difficult to find traces of an anarchistic organiza¬ 
tion, having such extensive ramifications. Some 
groups were found in a finished condition, others in 
an inchoate. Malatesta and his accomplices were 
condemned to severe penalties on 1st of January, 
1884. This condemnation, however, did not pre¬ 
vent the Questione Sociale, a weekly anarchistic pub¬ 
lication from being published in Florence. In the 
month of September, 1884, fifty-five anarchists were 
condemned in Florence, nearly all though, in contu¬ 
macy. 

It is useless to insist on the extreme violence of 
the Italian anarchists as well in their meetings as 
speeches. The frenzy of blasphemy possesses them. 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


136 

They exalt the great heads of the cosmopolitan revo¬ 
lution. On the 30th of March, 1884, an agent from 
Pistoia to Florence, carrying five hundred copies of 
a manifesto, apotheozing the Commune of Paris, was 
arrested. It was the second edition of a writing the 
police of Florence had seized at the railroad some 
five days before. 

Italy has had notables at Geneva, as our readers 
know; her dynamite explosions too. The papers 
report that during the month of June, 1884, in con¬ 
sequence of this, and on the advice of the English 
police, the Italian police forwarded to the Vatican a 
recommendation to keep good watch in the interest 
of the Basilic of St. Peter, and the number of the 
guards of the public service, outside the Vatican was 
considerably augmented. 

It is a sad spectacle, crowned resolution, defending 
itself against petroleum and dynamite. 


VIII. 

Russia. — Everybody has heard of the Russian 
nihilists; nevertheless, the question of nihilism is to¬ 
day pretty well wrapped up in my story. Does this 
formidable movement belong to the social revolution, 
or is it purely political? In a recent debate on 
socialism, in the German Parliament, when two 
deputies, Mr. De Stauffenberg and Mr. Windthorst, 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 137 

having* expressed their fears, that a too violent repres¬ 
sion might bring on nihilistic crimes, Prince Bis¬ 
marck replied to them, that they misunderstood the 
character of nihilism. “The situation of Germany 
is entirely different from that of Russia.” Said the 
Chancellor. “In Russia there is now neither a 
socialistic, or an industrial question. The Russian 
workingman is an Imperialist, and is ready to kill a 
nihilist if he were permitted. The nihilist does not 
come out of the ranks of the workingmen. * * 

Their recruits are from rejected University Students, 
(aus dent abiturienten prolectariat.) * * * 

They are derived from an exhaustive supply of men 
whose education is incomplete. * * * The 

Russian nihilist is a kind of an addled person, bear¬ 
ing the particular stamp of his own country. 

However felicitous may be the expression, abitur¬ 
ienten proletariat (the workingmen of the rejected 
University Students), we believe that the truth was 
as much on the side of Messrs. Windthorst and De 
Stauffenberg, as on that of Prince Bismarck. 

We are far from wishing to depreciate the 
part played in the Russian revolutionary move¬ 
ment, by the reputed University bachelors and 
by the lady students. We have ourselves hereto¬ 
fore called attention to it, in a former publica¬ 
tion. It is said, that out of 50,000 students in 
Russia, the schools send out into the streets about 
6,000, whose material wants and whose aspirations 


138 the social danger 

cannot be satisfied. Add to these figures the number 
of female students in the same condition, and we 
easily find an impression of the action of this work¬ 
ing class, (leproletariat 1 ) this class, by the way, which 
is rapidly in a state of formation elsewhere than in 
Russia. But a revolutionary movement of the ex¬ 
tent and character of Russian nihilism, which has 
resisted, for a long time, so merciless a repression 
cannot be the work of some thousands of dissatisfied- 
male and female students. It is true that nihilism 
has the stamp of the country only, but if we look 
closer, we observe that it has the features of the 
actual cosmopolitan molestation, and socialism is at 
the bottom of it. 

Let us take a rapid review of the history of nihil¬ 
ism, aided as we are by documents which become 
more and more numerous. For us it is no longer 
a subject of doubt, that the source of nihilism, as of 
socialism, is found in the naturalistic atheism, which, 
through the schools, has invaded the vast spheres of 
Russian society. We will willingly say that it was 
both an unheard of want of foresight, if it were only 
want of foresight, that the public instruction of Rus¬ 
sia was handed over to the impious sectaries and 
revolutionary refugees. Long ago, Joseph de 
Maistre, one of the many of our age ablest to foresee 
the future, wrote the following lines, in a memoran¬ 
dum addressed to the Emperor Alexander I.: 

“There is but one sect: and no statesman oueht 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 139 

to be ignorant of it. It is at the same time one and 
many, and surrounds Russia, or to speak more cor¬ 
rectly, premeates it everywhere, and attacks it in its 
deepest roots. The sect has no need, as in the six¬ 
teenth century, to get up in the pulpit to raise armies, 
or to excite publicly, the people to revolt. Its 
manner of action is not less adroit; it reserves the 
noise for the end. All it wants now is the ears of 
children of every age and the tolerance of sov- 
eregns.” 

We know that the Count de Maistre foreseeing, 
in some manner, the name to be used in designating 
the disciples of the immoral negation impeached by 
him, called the men whom he had marked out 
"Rienistes. 1 The Russian schools have kept the 
same tendency since the commencement of the 
century; the secondary educational instruction of 
girls, rivals in impiety the other establishments, and 
its literature is up to the level of the schools. The 
State or the power of the Emperor, believing only 
in himself, stifled all other social force. The en¬ 
chained Russian church was absolutely powerless. 
Under such influences nihilism sprung into exist¬ 
ence. 

Russian nihilism went through the five phases 
through which the revolution in other countries passed, 
to reach socialism. In its first period, it was a religious 
philosophic and moral negation. “Nihilism,” says 


1. Nothingists.— Tran. 


140 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


one of its recent and principal historians, “showed 
itself first on # religious and philosophic grounds, 
where it had an easy game, as in Russia a priest is 
only a ridiculous personage, and the upper classes 
are no longer believers. The works of Feuerbach, 
Buchner, Moleschott, Darwin, Buckle, Spencer and 
Comte were translated and popularized. The young 
were completely captivated by the atheistic and 
materialistic movement.” 1 

The political war was not much behind the re¬ 
ligious negation. Until after 1870, the nihilistic 
movement was in general, liberal and democratic. 
Rapidly then it reached the social negation, thanks 
to the influence of the Internationale, and who would 
have believed it? to the influence of the Commune 
of Paris on the youth of Russia. At that time the 
works of Proudhon, the Capital of Karl Marx, and 
the writings of Lasalle were spread everywhere. 

Observe that nihilism, in as much as it is doctrine, 
is a western importation. It has invented nothing. 
Only in revolutionary practice has it shown a fright¬ 
ful originality. Assassination has been organization 
in a fashion never before attempted; and in the 
female nihilist it has produced the sad type of an 
“emancipated woman.” 

We are astonished that Prince Bismarck should not 
have recognized the socialistic character of the latest 

1. Alphons, Thun, Geschichte der revolutionaren Bewegungen in Buss- 
land. Leips c, 1883, p. 35. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 


4 


development* of nihilism. Its historian, whom we 
have quoted above, distinguishes our periods in its 
career; the period of propaganda from 1872 to 1875, 
that of revolutionary agitation from 1875 to 1877, that 
of the transition to terrorism from 1877 to 1879, and 
then finally that of terrorism since 1879. In a few 
words, let us characterize each period. 

The impulse given to Young Russia, during the 
period of propaganda, came chiefly from abroad, 
through literature, through travellers, and by the 
personal influence of certain Russian socialistic agita¬ 
tors. Among these last, there are two, whose names 
will survive in the history of Russian Socialism: Ba- 
kounine, whom our readers know, and Lawrow, an 
ex-colonel, formerly professor at the military academy 
of St. Petersburg, and the most important Russian 
socialistic writer of that period. A center, or rather 
school for socialistic propaganda, was formed at 
Zurich, in Switzerland, around the University and 
the Polytechnic school of that city. In 1873, during 
the Summer term, there were not less than forty- 
three male and one hundred Russian female students 
in the Uniuersity of Zurich. In the Winter term of 
the same year, in the polytechnic school, the Russian 
male students numbered ninety-four; of the hundred 
female students at the University, seventy-six were 
studying medicine. 1 When we reflect, with what 
principles these young people were imbued, 

L. Alph-Thun. p. 66. 


142 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


whose family education had been incomplete 
or vicious, we easily understand, how little difficulty 
Bakounine or Lawrow had to fanaticise their ardent 
imaginations. When the Russian government, noti¬ 
fied of what was passing, forbade its students atten¬ 
dance at the University of Zurich, the purpose of 
Bakounine had nearly been attained; Russian social¬ 
ism had at its service a little army full of valor and zeal, 
and capable of all kinds of adventures and audacities. 

Nevertheless, in Russia the propaganda was not 
so easily organized. Many students were to be 
selected from. Many of the revolutionaries were in 
favor of a political movement; but the most of the 
agitators, with Bakounine and Lawrow, preferred 
social revolution. For them, social, and economical 
equality should take precedence of the political. A 
political revolution, said they, only brings about a 
change of masters. Bakounine and Lawrow indeed 
were not entirely in accord. According to Bakou¬ 
nine, the propaganda should not confine itself to the 
spread of socialistic and anarchistic doctrines, but 
should endeavor, at various points of the territory, to 
stir up insurrections, expected incessantly to maintain 
agitation in the country. On his part, Lawrow 
advocated, a more pacific propaganda, similar to that 
of the German socialists, Bebel and Liebknecht; con¬ 
formably to this system, the revolution ought to take 
at first, root in the ideas of the people, and then of 
its own accord, to put itself before the public. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 143 

In the midst of their hesitations a magical phrase 
was uttered, “let us go to the people!” which attracted 
all the young revolutionaries. They all wished to 
mingle with the people, to teach them the rights and 
the manner of attaining happiness. Some were sat¬ 
isfied with making excursions here and there; others 
went so far as to abandon their career in the liberal 
professions and learn trades to be able to enter the 
workshops and to mix with the laboring classes. 
The propaganda even reached the prisons. 

It was soon understood that there would be no 
serious result of all this if the peasantry was not 
reached and endoctrinated. To be less suspected, 
the propagandists painted their faces brown, and 
wrinkled their hands, and with false passports in 
their boots, their satchels full of socialistic and revo¬ 
lutionary works, went out at haphazard, 1 ready to 
stop wherever they would be well received. The 
women were the most enthusiastic. Some of them 
who belonged to high society, Nathalie Armfeld, 
Barbara Batjuskowa, Sophia Perowskaja, Sophia 
Lceschern de Herzfeld, and others were able to con¬ 
demn theinselve to the hardest and meanest work of 
the fields or in the factories. Sophia Perowskaja, 
who participated in the murder of the Emporor 
Alexander, giving to the conspirators the signal by 
a movement of her veil, at first went from village to 
village, vaccinating children; she was afterwards a 


1. Alph-Thun, p. 95. 


i 4 4 THE SOCIAL DANGER 

teacher in the province of Tever, and later practices 
surgery. 

In the number of those propagandists we must 
count the young Krapotkine, who afterwards was to 
replace his countryman, Bakounine, in the leadership 
of the anarchists. He had been on the staff of the 
Governor General of Siberia, and was secretary of 
the Imperial Geographical Society. 

The propagandist movement, under the zeal of a 
sudden impluse, had failed in concealing its schemes. 
The work of the nihilistic conspiracy was at its com¬ 
mencement. An energetic suppression, undertaken 
in the month of July, 1874, brought disorder to its 
ranks. In less than a year 700 persons were arrested 
and accused. 

The success of the propagandists, though not cor¬ 
responding with their enthusiasm, was not unimport¬ 
ant. In 1875 there were few provinces without 
socialistic colonies or associations. The disciples, 
though of the movement, were not numerous in the 
University cities. 1 

Under these circumstances the revolution never 
thought of giving way before repression, for, although 
the more pacific elements of the propaganda had been 
paralized, other agencies might still be adopted. To 
this period of propaganda succeeded that revolution¬ 
ary agitation. 

Here were the apprentice days of the conspiracy. 


1. Alph-Thun, p. 94. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 145 

No means of obtaining disciples were rejected. For 
the purpose of being more at liberty and to secure 
passports, young women contracted fictitious mar¬ 
riages. Leagues of students called Communes were 
multiplied, and secret societies, even in the country 
districts, were formed. Then came demonstrations, 
riots and strikes. As arrests became more common, 
associations were made to rescue or to solace the 
prisoners. 

We may estimate, by one example, the power 
possessed by these latter associations. It was 
thought necessary to rescue Prince Krapotkine, who 
had been arrested and detained in the citadal of St. 
Petersburg. He succeed in having himself, as sick, 
transferred to the infirmary, where the project for 
his escape was settled. He had observed that on a 
certain time, when the winter supply of wood was 
brought to the prison, a particular door was left un¬ 
guarded. Through that door the prisoner had 
decided on escaping. It was necessary for him to 
be assured that no obstacle on the outside would be 
met with; for that purpose a friend’s carriage was to 
receive him, immediately on his flight; besides, five 
men were stationed, from distance to distance, to 
give notice of danger; the duty of a sixth was to 
indicate the favorable moment and to give the 
signal by sending up a red balloon. Unfortunately 
a red balloon could not be procured in all St. Peters¬ 
burg, and the one the conspirators themselves 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


146 

had hastily made, did not go high enough to be ob¬ 
served by Krapotkine. The first failure did not 
discourage the audacious nihilist. A second plan 
for escaping was immediately agreed upon. The 
tones of a violin, on this occasion, took the place of 
the red balloon. Krapotkine was walking in the 
yard of the hospital, on the 29th June, 1876, wear¬ 
ing an invalid’s cloak. The violin was heard for a 
moment, and then was suddenly silent, as a wagon, 
laden with wood, was going towards the gate of the 
hospital. The wagon went in, the violin was again 
heard, and Krapotkine was on the point of rushing 
out, when the tones of the violin stopped again, as 
at a distance, a patrol was crossing the street. Some 
moments passed, the violin recommenced, and Kra¬ 
potkine, quick as lightning, threw away the cloak, 
darted through the unguarded gate and threw him¬ 
self into his friend’s carriage. The future chief of 
anarchism in western Europe was saved. 1 

Notwithstanding the activity and the audacity of 
the conspirators, no brilliant result came of all this 
revolutionary agitation. This was the time of the 
war with Turkey, and the excitement of the war over¬ 
came that of the revolution. Nevertheless, three 
consequences may be mentioned. At first Russia 
became accustomed to secret societies; secondly, 
the trials which subsequently.were held, gave oppor¬ 
tunities to the nihilists to place themselves before 

1. Alph-Thun. p. 145-146. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 147 

the public. In fine, the revolutionaries who had 
preferred social action to political, finding 1 themselves 
crushed by the government, changed their minds. 
“The government, now,” said they, “is the chief 
obstacle, we must commence a death struggle with 
it, and through a social revolution, reach the 
political.” It was a terrorism which was brewing. 

The revolver shot which Wera Sassulitsch fired at 
General Trepow, chief of police of St. Petersburg, 
on 24th January, 1878, introduced a long series of 
assassinations, which startled the world and inau¬ 
gurated a new revolutionary era. History, no doubt, 
was acquainted with political assassinations before 
the existence of Wera Sassulitsch, but it never had ex¬ 
perience of a vast and permanent assassinating organ¬ 
ization; the creation of that was reserved to nihilism. 

The revolver shot of Wera Sassulitsch has other 
claims for our attention. She was brought before a 
jury belonging to all classes of society, and on the 
direct issue whether the accused had or had not 
wounded the general; to bring about her acquital, 
the jury decided she had not. Such an unheard of 
verdict was greeted by the crowds with an enthusiasm 
near unto frenzy. In the street the people rescued 
her from the hands of the police, and she was enabled 
to escape and pass the frontiers. A scene like this 
is fitted surely to teach the most sceptical reader the 
situation of Russia, and the results of the revolu¬ 
tionary propaganda. 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


148 

The nihilist organization, which these last years 
have brought under our observation, was not com¬ 
pleted in 1878. The struggle with the government 
added the finishing touches. The revolutionaries 
saw clearly the need of centralizing their forces, to 
act with greater unanimity and system, and that a 
merciless discipline was requisite. While their 
centralization went on in St. Petersburg, the system 
of terrorism was tried on the southern provinces. 

It is by the trials and biographies of the revolu¬ 
tionaries condemned and executed, we are able to 
get at some of the threads of the nihilistic organiza¬ 
tion. The contraband press functionizes in the most 
extraordinary manner. The resources to be reached 
by the conspirators, in the principal cities, are 
known to the smallest details. The houses where a 
revolutionary can take refuge are marked; he 
knows where he will be concealed if he finds him¬ 
self followed. Those who will conceal him are 
frequently government officials. Every nihilist has 
his allotted place; one is employed on the press, 
another is a distributor of nihilistic literature, a third 
has a charge in the imperial prisons, another is en¬ 
gaged in manufacturing deadly engines of destruc¬ 
tion, a fifth may be marked out as an assassin. 
When the death of the Emperor Alexander was 
decided on, many of the conspirators disputed among 
themselves the horrible honor of being his mur¬ 
derer. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 149 

It must be said though, that the nihilist does 
not pretend to kill for the sake of killing. According 
to the theory of the Executive Committees, murder 
is a means of combat imposed by the circumstances 
in which Russia is placed. The committee’s official 
organ, the Narodnaja Wolja , (The will of the 
People,) 1 condemned the murder of President Gar¬ 
field, and on that occasion, declared that violence 
could only be used against violence. 

Here, according to the almanac of the Will of the 
People , is the balance sheet of the Russian and Polish 
revolutionary movement since 1871 to 1882. It has 
had 101 legal trials; 31 death condemnations, 209 
sentences to prison with hard labor; 190 sent into 
exile, and 134 relegated to prison. It has brought 
out a literature that merits some consideration. It 
has built up a press abroad, and in Russia itself. 

Our readers may perhaps recollect the principal 
events by which the Russian revolutionary move¬ 
ment gave “signs of life” since 1882. From time 
to time, a steady silence was observed, or perhaps 
the exile of some few condemned nihilists is spoken 
of, then the optimistic press announces that it is all 
over with the Russian revolution, and that the police 
have squelched it; then suddenly, a crime prepared 
with santanic sagacity, and executed with unheard of 
audacity, horrifies the public and informs it that 
nihilism is still what it was. Since 1882, the under- 


1. No. 7 and 8; r. Alph-Thun, p. 301. 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


150 

ground work of the Russian revolution has never in 
the least been disconcerted. 

In 1882, appeared in the Russian language, the 
famous Communist Party Manifesto of Karl Marx. 

The Narodnaja Wolja announces a change of 
policy. Its editors recognize that the political power 
is the chief support of the existing system, and that 
consequently it has to be destroyed, to allow the 
people to realize an economical revolution. 

The southern part of Russia is in agitation. Many 
arrests are made. The chief of the repressionary 
agents, Strelnikoff, on the 8th of March, is assassi¬ 
nated at high noon, in the public square of Odessa, 
by the nihilists Zelwakoff and Chalturin. The 
assasins declare they have acted in accordance with 
the order of the executive committee, they refuse to 
make any other confession. 

In 1883, it is publicly admitted that the Charkov 
is perfectly revolutionized. 

A plot against the life of the Czar has been dis¬ 
covered and foiled by the police, through intelligence 
from abroad. Important arrests were made. Many 
compromised individuals committed suicide. 

The concentration of the revolutionary societies 
shows progress, and they are uniting, the socialist 
party, properly so declared, joining that of Narod¬ 
naja Wolja . 

The agitation in the month of March, was great. 
The newspapers report that the discovery of a con- 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 151 

spiracy has led to the arrest of fifty officers in St. 
Petersburg. An immense quantity of dynamite is 
found in a house before which the coronation pro¬ 
cession of the Emperor had to pass. 

The Russian revolutionaries publish abroad their 
tri-monthly review Westrik Narodnai, (The Peoples’ 
Herald.) It is edited by Lawrow and Tischomoriff, 
Its platform is the same as that of Narodnaja Wolja , 
viz: that socialism might succeed, it is necessary to 
break down the despotism of the Czar. 

In the month of October, according to the Inde- 
pendance Beige , Miss Jentys, the directress of the 
Institute Maria, in Warsaw, was arrested at the 
general post office at the moment she was receiving 
some packages from Switzerland, containing letters 
and revolutionary literature. While the police took 
charge of her person, the military surrounded the 
Institute, entered the class rooms and dormitories, 
took possession of some compromising papers, and 
arrested eight students. At the same time, in differ¬ 
ent parts of the city, nine other students, writers for 
the socialistic journal, the Proletariet, fall into the 
hands of the police. 

On the 28th December, the Lieutenant Colonel of 
police, Sudeikin, is most audaciously assassinated 
by some nihilists at the moment he was making 
enquiries in a suspected quarter. He was considered 
the soul of the “Holy League,” and had for a long 


152 THE SOCIAL DANGER 

time directed with success the pursuits of the nihilistic 
conspiracy. 

The sensation produced by his assassination was 
immense. “ Since the catastrophe of March, 1881,” 
says the Times , “no enterprise of nihilism has been 
so well organized or conducted so resolutely. * * * 
Every one understands that in striking Sudeikin, as 
in the same way of Mesenzeff, the system was the 
object aimed at. 

The court was terrified, and it had good reason to 
be. From what we read in a correspondence to the 
new Tageblatt , of Vienna, Sudeikin had thrice saved 
the life of Czar Alexander III. The first time in 
1882, the Lieutenant Colonel had learned in the 
month of March, the names of the persons charged 
by the executive committee to kill the Emperor. He 
was in ignorance of the place where the conspirators 
met. When he had obtained more precise informa¬ 
tion, he was able to capture them on the night of 
the 5th June. He discovered also, in finding them in 
the house where they had been concealed, enough of 
dynamite bombs and other explosive materials to 
blow up half of St. Petersburg. The condemnation 
of eight conspirators, and of nine other terrorists, 
was pronounced on 17th April, a little before the 
crowning of the Emperor. Many of the conspira¬ 
tors were put to death. Sudeikin hastened to 
approach the condemned, and proposed a compromise 
which exhibited nihilism as a power with which the 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 153 

Emperor of Russia finds himself, from time to time, 
obliged to treat. He promised that no execution 
would take place, provided the festivities of the 
coronation would not be disturbed. The condemned 
were allowed to address an appeal to the executive 
committee, which sanctioned the compromise; and 
it was accepted by both sides. The coronation and 
its festivities took place, and contrary to all expec¬ 
tations, passed over without any criminal incident; 
and six of those condemned to death were pardoned. 
Sudeikin had not only saved the life of the Emperor 
Alexander III, but he had saved St. Petersburg and 
Moscow the horrible catastrophes prepared for 
them. 

The year 1884, commenced in St. Petersburg 
under the impression made by the murder of Sudei¬ 
kin. It did not have many promises of calm. A 
nihilistic proclamation was found in the University 
loudly certifying that he had been put to death by 
the order of the executive committee. 

Young socialism undertook to form an alliance. 
“ Its organization,” says the Independance Beige , “is 
to anticipate the wishes addressed from all parts of 
the Empire to the executive committee. The politi¬ 
cal police already estimate the membership of the 
Alliance at about five thousand, divided into forty- 
eight groups.” 

In the month of March, Warsaw was excited. 
Domiciliary visits of the police were made night and 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


i 54 

day. Officers enter houses and carry on their search 
with extreme care. 

On 23d June, the captain of police, Gidshen, is 
assassinated at Odessa. This murder is attributed 
to the nihilistic female student, Agatha Josifowna 
Karolewitsch, nineteen years of age, and daughter 
of a priest. She had been assisted by the nihilist, 
Timothy Fransowitsch Powalski, who entered service 
at the captain’s, the better to prepare his murder. 

In the month of June a plot against the life of the 
Emperor is discovered in Warsaw. It has vast rami¬ 
fications. For its execution the moment of the 
arrival of the Emperor to take part in the military 
review, was selected. According to the information, 
which the Russian censure makes it difficult to 
obtain, it was the intention to blow up the imperial 
palace and bury in its ruins the Emperor and all his 
attendants. This time, though, the conspirators were 
not students but judges, even a procuror general 
was compromised. Arrests are being made of hun¬ 
dreds, chiefly Russians, Bulgarians or Servians. A 
domiciliary visit to the house of the chief conspirator 
the justice of peace, Bardowski, leads to the discovery 
of revolvers, poignards, bombs, explosive materials, a 
hand printing press, and numerous proclamations. 
It appears that the nihilists of Warsaw conceal their 
doings under the mask of panslavism. They were 
ardent agents of Russia, and had been favored by 
the government. Those tactics are not new. How 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 155 

many wounds has society suffered in the name of a 
a false and exaggerated nationalism. 

Scarcely had the impression made by the dis¬ 
covery of the plot at Warsaw passed away, when the 
Gfazette de la Croix , of Berlin, announced on the 
faith of a correspondence from Paris, that a commu¬ 
nication from London arrived in time to prevent a 
conference of nihilistic anarchists, to be held in 
Copenhagen, at the end of July, or commencement 
of August. The conference was to treat of general 
revolutionary measures, and to deliberate on some 
project to be put in execution when the voyage to 
Copenhagen of the Emperor Alexander III. was to 
be undertaken. 

Our readers may recollect the details, given by 
journalists, of the attempt made by a young girl, 
Mary Kaljuschnaja, at Odessa, to assassinate the 
chief of police, Katansky. 

We thought we were correct when we said, “Nihil¬ 
ism is now as it ever was.” 1 We were also correct 
when we said that religious negation was the first 

1. in the ranks of nihilism all classes of society and all professions are 
found. A trial, which has lasted from 28th September to the 10th October, 
has ended in the conviction of fourteen nihilists. Here are their names: 

Veva Figner, daughter of a gentleman; Apollo Nemotowsky, son of a 
Russian priest; Dimitry Surovtzeff, son of a priest; Spandoni Basmandshi, 
son of a merchant; Wladimir Tshaikoff, a gentleman; Iwanoff, son of a 
merchant; Ludmilla Wolkenstein, a physician’s wife; Aschenbrenner, 
lieutenant colonel of infantry; Poschitonoff, lieutenant colonel of cavalry; 
Rogatscheff, lieutenant of artillery; Baron Stromberg, lieutenant of the 
navy, and Ensign Yuvatscheff. All these were condemned to be hanged, 
but the penalty was commuted by the Emperor to life imprisonment for 
some, and from fifteen to ten or four years hard labor for others. 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


i5 6 

step in nihilism. In the Memoirs of the anonymous 
writer for Semljci i Wolja, (Land and Liberty,) we 
read the following avowal: “The first battle was 
made on the gound of Faith, and was neither long 
or vigorous; we won, we may say, from the very 
first attack, for there is no country where religion 
has taken less root than among the cultivated classes 
of Russia. The generation which has passed away, 
by habit somewhat Christian, and by education some¬ 
what atheistic, unpoco atea per coltura. And when 
a legion of young writers, armed with the natural 
sciences and philosophy, full of talent and zeal for 
proselytism, rushed to the attack, what remained of 
Christianity fell like an old wall, which stands up only 
because nobody touched it.” 

These words of a nihilist contain a great lesson. 
May it be understood by those governments which 
think they are called to undertake and control the 
education of their people. 


IX. 

Switzerland.— The history of anarchism in Swit¬ 
zerland is lost in the general history. At first, we 
must say, that Swiss anarchism is cosmopolitan; its 
groups are not national; they only welcome those 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 157 

anarchists coming from other lands. Besides, out of 
Switzerland went the double movement. 

There were two movements in Switzerland, the 
first received its impulse from Bakounine, and Prince 
Krapotkine condemned it. The second came from 
Germany; it was that of Most and the Freiheit , and 
there Most got his first disciples. 

In 1880, the congress of Wyden expelled Most 
from the socialistic party. That did not disconcert 
the fiery sectary; he commenced so active a prop- 
agandism in Switzerland, that in two months after 
the congress of Wyden, he was able, in his turn to 
convene in October, 1880, a congress on the shores 
of lake Geneva. And then it was declared that the 
resolutions in Wyden were null and void. An anar¬ 
chistic party was established, the Freiheit was con¬ 
sidered as its organ, and that every effort should be 
made to carry on the propaganda. 

Then came the congress of London in 1881. The 
anarchists of the Swiss cantons, where the German 
is spoken, accepted its platform. They formed their 
groups on the model of the Russian nihilists, and 
opened correspondence with their colleagues else¬ 
where. According to D. Zacher, 1 their principal 
aim was a propaganda by deeds in Germany. Efforts 
were made to obtain a special fund for the purpose 
of extending the circulation of the Freiheit and 


1. Die rothe Internationale, p. 83-84. 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


158 

other anarchistic publications, as well as to sustain 
emissaries throughout Germany. 

The party kept on increasing in number. When 
the Freiheit , by reason of events we have narrated, 
was suppressed in England, it was secretly edited 
in Switzerland, up to the middle of November, 1882, 
when it was transferred to the United States. In 
1883, the anarchistic groups were multiplied and 
consolidated. In a secret conference, which was 
held in Zurich, in August, 1883, at which delegates 
from Austria, Germany, Switzerland and France took 
part, a new kind of propaganda was approved, and 
the establishment of a clandestine press was voted. 
From this clandestine press probably came the few 
copies printed of the “ Rebel,” which, according to 
the confession of the murderers Stellmacher and 
Kammerer, inspired them. 

Our readers know the rest. Kammerersand Stell- 
machers frightful propaganda by deeds, was pre¬ 
pared and organized in Switzerland. It was there 
the fanaticised assassins fled after each crime, and 
there they plotted the crimes which were to follow. 

Up till 1883, the Swis£ police took no exceptional 
measures for the suppression of anarchism. We 
read what follows, taken from the report of the Fed¬ 
eral Department of Justice and Police. 

“The political police had a good deal to do in 
1882. * * * The activity shown in this branch 

of our department was specially elicited by the revo- 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 159 

lutionary anarchistic manifestations, which were more 
or less publicly, made in our neighboring countries, 
and repeated in Switzerland by their adherents in 
sympathy, and in relation with them. Here, too, 
their doctrines are taught and preached, in a certain 
part of the Press and in many meetings. Although, 
indeed, those teachings are not always unequivocally 
expressed in the meetings, too frequently the audi¬ 
ence is insensibly disposed towards their acceptance. 
Then it became necessary, during the year, to pre¬ 
vent these threatening extravagancies.” 

We are not aware of any “extravagancies” pre¬ 
vented; but this we know well, that the crimes 
plotted and prepared in Switzerland were not pre¬ 
vented. It was only when they were perpetrated 
and the connections of their authors with the Swiss 
anarchists, placed beyond a doubt that the federal 
authorities thought fit to act. In the month of March, 
1884, the Federal Council expelled the Bavarian 
Kennel, the Silesian Schulze, Falk of Styria, and the 
Bohemian Lissa. This act did not appear to intimi¬ 
date the anarchists. 

The Freiheit indulged in extreme insolence against 
the Federal authorities. After the execution of 
Stellmacher, in Vienna, the Swiss people had oppor¬ 
tunities of reading, on the walls of many of the 
cities, a manifesto, secretly posted, lauding to the 
skies, the assassin as a martyr, and proposing his 
deeds as worthy of imitation. 


160 THE SOCIAL DANGER 

The Federal Council then bestirred itself and 
called upon the authories in the different cantons to 
pay greater attention to the anarchistic movements. 9 
Many arrests were made, as in Zurich and Basle. 
Among the anarchists was found the wife of Stell- 
macher and a socialist, expelled from Berlin, of the 
the name of Weiss, who seemed to be in correspon¬ 
dence with the Russian police. 

Our readers know already from what we have 
said of anarchism in France, the condition of anarch¬ 
ism in the cantons of Switzerland, where French is 
spoken. While the movement which we have called 
German, has for its aim a social revolution in Ger¬ 
many or Austria, the French movement looks towards 
France, Italy, and the South of Europe. The ex¬ 
ploits of Montceau-les-Mines, and Lyons must be 
put to the credit of the latter which became very 
important in 1882, and 1883, under the direction of 
Prince Krapotkine and Elisee Reclus. At its con¬ 
gress of 1882, at Lausanne, more than thirty dele¬ 
gates were assembled, and many thousands of 
disciples counted. This congress was succeeded by 
an international conference in Geneva, on 13th and 
14th of August, 1882, on the occasion of a great 
musical festival. There were not less than fifty 
members; Russians, French, Germans, and Italians. 
The reports of the favorable condition of the groups 
of Lyons, Montceau-les-Mines, Marseilles, Cette, 
Grenoble, and Paris, were read. The conference 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 161 


adjourned with these cries: “ Down with God! Down 
with nationality, (La patrie .) Down with govern¬ 
ments ! Down with the employers! ” In an address 
to the workingmen of Europe, the members of the 
congress declare that they sympathize with all 
those, who, by any revolutionary deed, can set law 
at naught. 

The congress met again in 1883, at Chaux-de- 
Fond, on 7th July, and declared the necessity of 
propaganda by deeds, and gave as an example to 
imitate, the young workman of Roanne, who, on the 
occasion of a great strike, gave emphasis to his claim 
by the use of a revolver. 

Since the great trial in Lyons, the anarchistic 
movement, with its centre at Geneva, has sought 
the shade. Its organ, though, the “ Rebel,” has not 
abandoned its doctrines. In the month of April, 1884, 
appeared at Geneva, another anarchistic sheet 
“ L! Explosion” which has succeded in surpassing the 
“ Rebel ” in violence. 


X. 

United States. —The anarchist Most 1 is now in 
America, his Freiheit is published in New York. 
So then, Anarchism has got a footing there. Like 
every where else, socialism had, at an early date, 

1. Where he is likely to remain until his sentence to Blackwell’s Island is 
worked out. 


162 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


some radical disciples who, little by little, seperate 
from their more moderate colleagues, to form a nuc¬ 
leus of their own. The nihilist, Hartman, was 
received triumphantly in many of the cities. A 
numerous assembly, in New York, frantically ap¬ 
plauded the socialist, Hasselman, when he congratu¬ 
lated the Russian nihilists on the murder of Alexander 
III. The radical wing is chiefly considerable in 
Chicago. At a congress in that city, on the 21st 
and 2 2d October, 1881, entire sympathy was de¬ 
clared toward the nihilists, and a recommendation 
was put forth for the organizing of armed trade 
associations, such as already existed there. It is 
true, that the congress advised participation in the 
elections; but already in 1882, in the November 
elections of that year, the inutility of taking part in 
them was proclaimed. The way was made smooth 
for Most, after leaving prison, to ask in America, the 
unlimited liberty which England had refused him. 
On 18th December, 1882, he was received with 
enthusiasm by those who were already his disciples. 
He had, as his mission, to organize anarchistic groups 
in the name of the Congress of London; and went 
from city to city, recommending the propaganda of 
deeds and the circulation of the Freiheit , which, 
henceforth was to be issued in New York. In less 
than a year he had adherents, chiefly among the 
German immigrants. The anarchistic party was 
formed; its congress met at Pittsburg, in the month 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 163 

of October, 1883, where anarchism was formally 
established, according to the manner of organization 
recommended by the congress of London. It is 
composed of automatic groups; nine committees in 
charge of agitation, and propaganda are named for 
as many large districts; another committee, with the 
business of .correspondence between the home and 
the foreign groups, became the “American League 
of the International Association of Workingmen.” 
Here is the summing up of the manifesto, issued by 
the congress of Pittsburg, to the workingmen of 
America: 

“The day is come, when it is right to say: ‘Each 
for all and all for each.’ Let the war cry be heard; 
Workingmen of all countries, Unite! You have 
nothing to lose but your claims, and you have every 
thing to gain. Tremble, ye tyrants of the world! 
Yet a little while, and your short sighted eyes will 
be able to see the lurid dawn of the day of justice.” 

It is not difficult to recognize in this, the hand of 
the editor of the Freiheit . This periodical is quite 
at home where it is permitted to say and write 
everything, and it seems to have no limits to its 
violence. Judge from the following lines, written 
concerning the crimes of Stutgart and Vienna com¬ 
mittees, for the purpose of procuring money for the 
party: “What is wanted, above all, by the revolu¬ 
tion,” says the Freiheit , “is money. * * * We 

must not then march too delicately over the skulls 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


164 

of those vampires.” And then he passes off to cele¬ 
brate the crimes of Stutgart and Vienna, as “deeds 
worthy of certain heroic characters, only to be wit¬ 
nessed in extraordinary times, and which are able to 
excite enthusiasm in the breasts of thousands of 
men.” And he adds: “To work, then! Strike as 
at Stutgart! * * * Indeed it is no importance 

to disturb a religious ceremony. Religion and every¬ 
thing belonging to it must be extirpated. Let the 
the priests look out for themselves on the day when 
the red flag will float over their shops. They will 
be cut in pieces, and the pieces thrown to the 
dogs.” 1 

The United States not only tolerates that fanatical 
anarchists, howl like this, but it allows the fabri¬ 
cation of the arms and destructive engines which 
they use. The Gazette de la Croix , of Berlin, in the 
month of June, 1884, gives the following information 
from the Iron Age , an Amerian paper: “ They were 
making, at New York and Philadelphia, under the 
very eyes of the authorities, all kinds of infernal 
machines. Daily go out from the ports of those 
cities, dozens of deadly instruments, of the size and 
nature of those which were some time ag-o to have ex- 
ploded in Westminster Palace. Occasionally some 
of those weapons are discovered at the moment they 
are placed on board the ship, but the majority pass 
unobserved.” 


1. Zacher, dio rothe Internationale, p. 158, 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 165 

And then follows a description of the different kind 
of bombs, one more deadly, it would seem, than 
the others. The Iron Age continues: 

“A manufacturer was recently asked: What 

effect would a more prohibitory law have on this 
state of things? ‘None,’ said he, ‘my machines 
become infernal ones only when they are loaded. 
Indeed, anything can be converted into an infernal 
machine; an orange, a gown, a hat, a shovel, or a 
pound of sugar will do.’ The orders for infernal 
machines are getting daily greater. All the revo¬ 
lutionary societies, not only of Europe, but of Mexico, 
and South America, have their agents here. Many 
watches are sent to St. Domingo and Haiti, which 
are only to be wound up from every eight to thirty 
days.” 1 

That page from the Iron Age is not less charac¬ 
teristic than the one we took from the Freiheit . The 
editor who excites to murder, the merchant who, for 
sordid gain, furnishes infernal machines, which he 
knows are to be used for crime, and the anarchist 
who uses them, are all three worthy of each other. 
We pity the country and the age which produces 
them. 


1. Quoted in the Germania, 20 June, 1884. 


THIRD PART. 


General Observations. 

Our observations will be short. The anarchists 
have reached the point, where they believe no confi¬ 
dence can be placed in any means, save their terrible 
theory of propaganda by deeds. From quite an¬ 
other point of view, we see ourselves reduced to 
believe in the eloquence of deeds. Social and econ¬ 
omical notions are so upset, opinions are so various 
and contradictory, profound and voluntary blindness 
are so common, that above all, facts are to be con¬ 
sidered. Well, we have presented the facts, we 
have gleaned in the two hemispheres. Let them 
speak. Are they not evident, numerous and 
threatening? 

If we add some observations, it is only to mark 
out more clearly the situations, to indicate the nature 
of the sockil plague, and to express our view of the 
remedy to be used. 



OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 167 

I. 

The Situation. — We have exposed the facts with 
impartiality; in the many documents we have con¬ 
sulted, we only sought the truth. We have brought 
no charges against modern society, or against its 
implacable enemies. Our purpose has been to ex¬ 
amine how deep the social wound went; and now 
our examination being ended we have reason to 
think the wound is deep. 

The votes given to socialistic candidates, and the 
rolls of the members of their associations, will help 
us in calculating the general strength of collective 
socialism. We are far from saying that every one 
who votes now and then for a socialist is himself 
one; but all reservations made, and counting in the 
families of those imbued with those dangerous doc¬ 
trines, we cannot but believe that their disciples 
reach up into the millions. But supposing they 
numbered only one hundred thousand—and those 
figures are too low—is not that somewhat alarming? 
One hundred thousand men denying God and a 
future life, and the very essential basis of society! 
One hundred thousand men who consider everyone, 
with no matter what title, possessing some social 
consideration, as robbers and swindlers! One hun¬ 
dred thousand men, armed with all possible objec¬ 
tions against an economical system, not too well 
protected against their catechisms; armed, too, with 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


168 

what we call cautiousness, armed, too, with alas! a 
hatred of which we have seen terrible results. One 
hundred thousand men, with a mission to save the 
workingmen, and addressing themselves to all the 
dissatisfied, by means of a press, whose secrecy adds 
to its seduction, and using the incessant relations of 
daily life, and in the painful hours of daily labor! 
Let us not be deceived. Here is before us an im¬ 
mense power for destruction. If three hundred 
thousand socialists were spread all over the world, 
and had nothing but their peculiar ideas, they would 
soon disappear in the great human family; but they 
are associated and organized. The gap in the ranks 
made by the loss of one, is soon filled up by the 
arrival of another. 

What will social collectivism be, when to the 
vitality it possesses by association, it will have added 
that of the family tie? When families will be 
wrapped up in the socialistic idea, and will live only 
for it, and will separate from other families on account 
of it, and will see that it is transmitted by education 
— what then? 

We have seen anarchism appearing everywhere 
at the side of collectivism. ' They are evidently of 
the same family; the younger brother is a little more 
violent and turbulent than the elder. It is not easy 
to ascertain the number of the partisans of anarch¬ 
ism, as they take no part in elections, and organiza¬ 
tion of their groups is kept secret. We can only 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 169 

guess it by the number of delegates attending their 
congresses, and by the statistics brought forth in 
them. 

The anarchists are certainly less numerous than 
the collectivists, but the numbers are not of so much 
importance for their system. It is said, with truth, 
that two thousand anarchists, fully determined on 
their plan, would make Paris tremble. The nihilists 
are not numerous, but to what condition of terror 
have they brought the immense Russian Empire? 
We have seen three anarchists, Stellmacher, and 
Kammerer, and an unknown accomplice, fill Austria 
with anxiety for many months. We should not for¬ 
get either, their formidable ally, dynamite, which the 
socialistic press welcomes with such unanimous en¬ 
thusiasm. 


II. 

Nature of the Social Plague.— It is of the great¬ 
est importance not to mistake the nature of the 
social plague. Whence does it come? Is socialism 
the work of some few agitators? No! If it were, 
it would pass away with them. Is it the exclusive 
result of a commercial crisis? No; for then it would 
be affected by the vicissitudes of . the crisis. The 
plague of socialism is still deeper like all the great 
plagues that threaten society. 


70 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


It does not confine itself to diminishing the con¬ 
sequences of a commercial crisis, or to correcting 
social inequality. It extends itself to all social life. 
It differs from us in our idea of what man is. It has 
not either, the same idea with us of what life is. 
Actual society is based upon the decalogue, and 
socialism has destroyed what it could of that. For 
such a system to be conceived, its author must have 
renounced belief in God, in the future life, and in the 
commandments; and for it to be accepted by the 
people, it was necessary that irreligion should have 
made great progress. 

Logically and chronologically the first dogma of 
socialism is the denial of God. 

Its second, the denial of a future life. 

Its third is the supreme law of enjoyment. Future 
life being denied, all is left is the present, and its 
purpose can only be enjoyment. 

The fourth is the greatest possible equalization of 
enjoyment. Enjoyment being the supreme law, and 
as in this life, there is great inequality in the attain¬ 
ment of it, a new system should be created to bring 
about a level. 

In other terms socialism is born of materialism in 
doctrine and materialism in life. 

Karl Marx was a conformed atheist, and so are all 
the contemporaneous leaders. 

“We have adopted,” said Bebel, in open Parlia¬ 
ment, 1878, “the doctrine of atheism, which came 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 171 

to us from abroad; we consider ourselves obliged to 
spread and propagate it through the masses. * * * 
Modern science helps us; we accept its teachings with 
all their consequences; we are endeavoring to pop¬ 
ularize them, and to bring them into the life of the 
nation, and into state organization.” 

On 17th July, 1884, the organ of German social¬ 
ism, the Sozial Demokrat, cynically remarks: “In 
vain, you gentlemen idealists, in vain you repeat 
your learned dissertation, socialism will always re¬ 
main what it was, atheistic and materialistic .” 

We have already spoken of the confession of 
Stellmacher before his judges, the first words of 
which he declared: “I do not believe in God.” We 
shuddered when reading that declaration. 

Why accumulate citations? We need only cast 
back a glance on what we have written. Nowhere 
has socialism been confined to economical questions. 
Two of the first conditions for its platform is an 
appeal to anti-religious prejudices; blasphemy and a 
strong hatred of the church, supply most material 
for the eloquence of its disciples. 

It must be admitted that the first cause of socialism 
is a religious and a moral one. We do not, of 
course, deny the existence of an economical cause; 
it exists, and is powerful, but it acts only occasion¬ 
ally. Were it not for the moral and religious 
cause the economical would never have produced 
this vast insurrection against social order. 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


172 

By a single word we can characterize the occas¬ 
ional or economical cause of socialism the degrada¬ 
tion ( proletarisation) of the masses, produced by the 
economical system, known by the name of capitalism. 
The number oiproletaires, that is of those who own 
nothing, has immensely increased, and is increasing 
daily. The greater part of them have lost Faith, and 
the gospel of enjoyment is now preached to them. 
Socialism has but to say, to these Godless people, 
thirsting for enjoyment: “You have been disin¬ 
herited, swindled, you have got no proper place at 
the banquet of life; come to me; together we will 
march to acquire our right, we will commence a war 
until death, against these swindlers.” What is able 
to restrain them so invited ? What will prevent them 
from casting their fate in with socialism? 

An illustrious writer, speaking of a laboring man, 
degraded and Godless, says: 

“ He proposes terrible questions to himself. He 
asks, ‘ has not God made men equal, and why, then, 
are some rich and some poor?’ He is said to be 
sovereign, and he points out his masters. It is said 
his condition is improving, and he answers, ‘I am 
hungry.’ Books are thrown to him, full of fine 
reasonings and neat calculations on the necessity of 
inequality in human conditions, and he does not read 
them.” 

“He prefers to listen to the foolish doctrines 
which agitate the darkest recesses of his being. In 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 173 

place of God’s gospel, which consoled him, he 
accepts another which renders him mad. He 
threatens to break into the actual material order 
and rob it.” 1 

Bebel made in the Reichstag , in reference to this 
degradation of the workingmen, (proletarisation), a 
declaration which we have already quoted, and will 
again call to the attention of our readers. 

“ Modern production, production through capital, 
offers to the socialistic idea the most favorable soil. 
This production, through capital, degrades the 
masses. No period in history presents such degra¬ 
dation of the masses like the last twenty years. In 
the measure that capital advances, so will this 
degradation develop, and the socialistic idea will 
gain in influence and spread.” 

And this proletarisation is still going on continu¬ 
ously and with accelerating pace. In some countries, 
efforts are being made to save what yet remains of 
the middle class of Tradesmen; will that be success¬ 
ful ? What is still graver, this degradation threatens 
the agricultural districts; and in the pay of capitalists 
how many peasants are today tilling the fields that 
belonged to their fathers? ! 


1. Louis Veccillot. Preface to Libres Penseurs. 


174 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


III. 

The Cure. —Where is the cure? Prince Bis¬ 
marck, the most powerful man in the political world, 
has been looking for it; and the elections which have 
taken place in Germany, prove in the most unex¬ 
pected manner that he has not found it. To attain 
his purpose, he employed negative means consisting 
of repression, and positive, which he thought he had 
found in what he called Social Reform. Indeed, 
the energy of his repressive acts left little to be 
desired; the state of seige, the expulsion of the chief 
agitators, the suppression of the socialistic press and 
association have gone on for six years. The Social 
Reform, too, had been pushed on with no less vigor; 
and has produced in a relatively short time two 
great Laws. What has been the result of those 
efforts? Socialism has had such an unexpected 
success, that Germany is thrilled with an astonish¬ 
ment almost equal to consternation. 

When the first pages of this work were sent to 
press, the elections for the German Parliament were 
about taking place. We then said that no party was 
better prepared for them than the socialists, but the 
results which reach us now, did not appear to us 
possible. At the very first scrutiny, nine socialistic 
candidates were found certainly, and twenty-five 
more, possibly elected. Of nearly two hundred 
thousand votes cast in the city of Berlin, seventy- 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 175 

eight thousand were given to the socialistic candi¬ 
dates. Of the three electoral districts of Hamburg, 
two were carried by socialists. Socialistic candidates 
were elected in all the principal cities of the Empire; 
in Berlin, Hamburg, Breslau, Frankfort, Magdeburg, 
Elberfeld, Hanover, Leipsic, Chemnitz, Brunswick, 
Munich, Nuremberg, etc. Twenty-four seats in the 
German Parliament belonged to the socialists, and 
their whole vote in the Empire, reached to more 
than half a million. 1 

In the month of October, 1878, when the mighty 
Chancellor of the German Empire delivered his 
Quosego to the socialists, who would have predicted 
a similar electoral triumph after six years of impla¬ 
cable repression? The leaders of socialism them- 

1. Socialism scored also successes in Alsace. In the industrial city of 
Sainte-Marie aux Mines, Bebel received 172 votes. In the district of Mul- 
house, the socialistic candidate, the innkeeper, Schmidt, had 2939 votes, 
against 8619 for Mr. Dollfus, the head of the manufacturing- interests of the 
city. Of these 2939 votes only 1397 can be credited to the city, 1514 were from 
the country. It cannot be denied that most of the voters for the socialistic 
candidate were not of his party, but we do not conceal that a very grave 
symptom was observed in this election. How were 2939 votes obtained for 
the socialist? no canvass was made for him, and four days before the 
election no one heard of him, and he was unknown in the district. To get 
these 2939 votes, all that was necessary was to despatch an order to the 
different societies having some socialistic members, and to scatter secretly 
in the streets of Mulhouse, and in the other localities of the district, an 
address from the press of the Social Demokrat, of Zurich. The address was 
of this nature to the workingmen; “Capital has enchained you. Do not vote 
for the representative of capital.” And to the peasants: “You are the 
victims of usury, that is to say, capital. * * * You bear the same yoke 

as tin; workingmen.” The address took care to conceal its socialistic origin 
and aim, and demanded a decrease in taxes, an end of armies, the abolition 
of class laws, and serious measures of local reform. The address of Mr. 
Dollfus used the word protest. The socialist replied, “We too, protest in 
turn, but it will be against the social system, which submits without 
mercy the workingman to capital.” 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


176 

selves, whatever then may have been their confidence 
in the future, did not anticipate what happened; and 
had sincerity enough to admit it. 

No. Prince Bismarck has not overcome socialism 
and has not found its cure. Must it be admitted 
that nothing will; that from this electoral triumph 
it proceed to others; and like a torrent, which has 
broken through its first dam, will carry away all the 
other obstacles to it. It does not follow from the 
want of success attending Prince Bismarck’s plan 
that socialism is invincible; we only infer that he has 
not used the proper methods, and that the State alone 
is not competent to remedy the social disease which 
is attacking it. 

We believe that nations may be cured; and since 
socialism can be cured, we believe it will. But we 
do not think that the cure will be brought about 
so soon, or that the efforts of one nation will be 
successful against an evil that is international. 

To efficaciously .combat socialism, it will require 
all the living forces of society. 

The two great powers thereof, are the Church and 
the State. Let the State look to the commercial 
ground: that is its sphere. We have already said 
the proletarization of the masses, by modern pro¬ 
duction, has favored socialism. Let the State, by its 
laws, as much as possible, look to obstruct this 
formidable process. Let it protect the workingman, 
create for him a less precarious condition of subsis- 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 177 

tence. Doing this, the State should not overstep its 
domain, and combat the socialism of the street by 
the socialism of the Crown. The State should not 
play at Providence. Nothing is more fatal than 
habituating men to expect everything from the 
State, and nothing familiarizes them more with 
socialism, which is an immense exaggeration of the 
idea of the State. 

Napoleon I, was right when he said, “It is a 
great fault in a government to wish to be too pater¬ 
nal ; by too great a solicitude it destroys liberty and 
prosperity.” 

The part of the State in the struggle against 
socialism is considerable; that of the Church is still 
greater. We have shown that above all, the social¬ 
istic evil is a moral and religious one; the history of 
socialism, of anarchism, and of nihilism, give sufficient 
evidence to that statement. And the church is the 
first moral and religious force to be brought to bear 
against this moral and religious evil. Modern 
governments have overlooked this elementary truth. 
They trammelled the Church at the moment when 
society had the most need of her free action. 

When the State has done all that it can to protect 
the weak against the strong, there will still be left in 
society, an immense domain which is not under the 
rule of law, but which is governed by charity. To 
level, in some manner, social inequalities, and to 
suppress hatred between the classes, the author of 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


178 

society created charity. And the the greatest pro¬ 
moter of charity is the Church. 

No doubt the Church cannot save society against 
its own will, for that the cooperation of the other 
social forces is needed. In her ceaseless struggle 
against the materialism of life, which has invaded all 
social grades, and which is the most powerful ally 
of socialism, she needs the cooperation of the schools, 
of the press, of art, of literature, morals and public 
usages. 

But if this cooperation is indispensable for success 
against socialism, what are we to think of the chances? 
Is the Church sufficiently armed for the struggle? 
What do we see nearly everywhere? The State is 
either persecuting or holding in suspicion, the Church. 
The State is hostile in France. In Germany, the 
Culturkampf is not yet ended. 1 In Italy, the seizure 
of the property of the Propaganda gives socialism a 
new argument. In Brussels, the socialists and liberals 
have united; elsewhere the christain family is disorgan¬ 
ized by law. Switzerland has exiled a bishop, before 
Krapotkine was expelled, and the greatest solicitude 
at Basle now is, to close up the Catholic schools. 

Has not the public school, from the primary to the 
university, fallen under the materialistic tendency 
which the socialists claim to be the cause of their 
faith, and growth ? Have not the modern philosophi¬ 
cal systems of Germany, of sensuality and positivism 

1. Since this was written, it can be said that it is ended. Trans. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 179 

in France, and particularly of Darwinism, which from 
England passed over so rapidly to the charge of the 
universities of the continent, implanted nihilism and 
materialism in philosophy, long before they, had 
found entrance into the social systems ? The 
philosophers have been the teachers, but the socialists 
in the German Parliament, have been able to say, 
“we are your pupils.” The young men leaving the 
Universities, or other establishments of education, 
thirst for pleasure. What resistance will they make 
to the socialistic Gospel of enjoyment? 

Prince Bismarck has attributed to the proletariat 
of Bachelors, the existence of Russian nihilism. This 
other kind of proletariat is seen everywhere, and 
has less energy, and frequently less morality than 
the proletariat of the workingmen. 

Let us borrow from a French Senator, whose tes¬ 
timony will not be suspected of any clerical bias, 
some considerations on a certain class of literature 
and art. “I cannot but give expression to a sadness 
which I am sure has affected every member of the 
senate. In these days great liberties have been 
taken with public morality; quite a literature, which 
no one here will defend, has invaded and overrun 
our country. I do not know for whom people now 
write; these works—the looseness, of which wounds 
me, afford a condemnation of the readers, as well as 
of the writers. The corrupt works of the end of the 
eighteenth century are innocent and simple to day by 


i8o THE SOCIAL DANGER 

the side of those circulating everywhere. And what 
engravings do we see at the head of books, given to 
public display ! And the advertisements ! And the 
placards. All this is fearful. I am not disposed to 
restrain in any way, the freedom of talent, or of wit, 
even it be gallic, but it is the licentiousness which 
alarms me; it penetrates, impregnates, poisons, cir¬ 
culates in, like a shameful disease, the blood so pure 
and generous of our race. It is under those impres¬ 
sions that I dread, everything that has the appear¬ 
ance of any attack on the great principles of social 
morality.” 1 

The energetic words of the Senator, may be 
applied to other countries as well as to France. 

Art is on a level with Literature. 

We have seen in some great cities, as much money 
expended for the reception of an actress, as is con¬ 
tributed for the succour of provinces entirely ravaged 
by a flood. 

In his turn, let an Italian Senator say what he 
thinks of the moral situation in Europe. 

“Public morality has enormously fallen, and is 
falling daily. The dominant religion of nearly all 
people, is the adoration of the golden calf; the fever 
for sudden gains, and colossal fortunes is epidemic. 

To satisfy the cupidity, nothing is left untried. 3 

This is the condition of things the people see. 
Such sights are certainly not likely to protect the 

1. Allou. Debates on the Laws of Divorce. 

2. Senator Musolino. Civitta Cattolica. 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 181 

masses against the invasion of socialism. Let us 
hear a son, a man of ^wonderful eloquence, speak of 
the effect produced on the mind of his father by 
these influences, and the feeling which the fate excited 
in his own filial heart. 

“ My father died when he was fifty years old. He 
was merely a workingman, without education or 
pride. Thousands of misfortunes had darkened the 
laborious days of his life. Ignorant but unfaltering, 
the only consolation he found was in his virtue. 
Nobody, for fifty years, had taken any interest in his 
soul, except when at the last, full of anguish, it went 
to its repose in God. Masters he always had to sell 
to him water, salt, the air, to take the tithe of his 
sweat; to ask from him the blood of his sons; a pro¬ 
tector or a guide he never had.” 

“In fact, what had society said to him? How had 
they translated to him his rights, so pompously en¬ 
rolled on their charts?* ‘Toil, be submissive, and 
honest. If you disobey, we will kill you; if you steal, 
we will imprison you. But if you suffer, we can not 
help it; and if you have no bread, go to the hospital 
or die, that is none of our business.”’ 

“That, and nothing more, had society said to him, 
and whatever promises it may inscribe on its consti¬ 
tutions, it can say and do no more. It has no bread 
for the board, except at the office for mendicants; at 
no place does it distribute consolations and respect. 
My father had toiled, suffered and was dead. On the 


182 


THE SOCIAL DANGER 


edge of his grave, I thought over the long tortures of 
his life; they presented themselves to me; I saw them 
all, and I counted those consolations which he might 
have had, too, notwithstanding his servile condition in 
this heart made for God. Pure and deep consolations. 
The crime of society, which nothing can absolve, 
had deprived him of them. The light from this -sad 
truth, caused me to curse, not toil, not poverty, not 
misery, but the great social iniquity, the impiety, by 
which is snatched from the disinherited of this world, 
the compensation which God attaches to the ine¬ 
quality of their lot. I allowed my anathema to break 
faith in the vehemence of my grief.” 

“Yes! there, I commenced to know, and to judge 
that civilization of pretending sages. Denying God; 
they have denied the poor, and they have fatally aban¬ 
doned his soul. I said to myself, the social edifice is 
iniquitous, it will crumble, it will be destroyed.” 

“ I was already a Christian; if I had not been, from 
that moment I would have belonged to secret socie¬ 
ties. I would have said, like many others: How is it, 
that there are people well clad, well housed, and well 
fed, while we are covered with rags, crowded into 
garrets, and obliged to labor in the sun and rain, to 
gain what is scarcely enough to keep life in us? 
And this fearful question made my head turn, for if 
God does not answer it , there can be no answeri 1 

From this fiery charge againt contemporaneous 


1. Louis Veuillet. Les Libres Peuseurs, 


OR TWO YEARS OF SOCIALISM. 183 

society, we re-echo the last words: “If God has no 
answer to,the social question: There is no answer.” 
Everything is there. 

Socialism, in its last analysis, rests on atheism, and 
God’s place must again be accorded Him in the minds 
of men, and in literature, art and morals. 

A powerful Sursum corda may lift men from above 
the attraction of matter. 

In other words, the day of triumph will be near, 
when men sincerely think they must return to Christ 
Jesus. In hoc signo vinces . 


APPENDIX. 


For some years past, Chicago took rank as one 
of the cities of the world, in which Socialism best 
flourished. Its prosperity, and its readiness to employ 
and amply remunerate labor, did not appear to 
satisfy all of the laboring classes. Meetings were 
frequently and openly held, in which the “ non produ¬ 
cing classes,” “the capitalist,” “the drones of society,” 
were denounced, and the rights and dignity of the 
laborer exalted. The Arbieter Zeitung , the socialistic 
organ, had a list of zealous and numerous subscri¬ 
bers. Even, although as a rule, few socialists became 
citizens of the United States, a candidate for mayor 
of the city was proposed by them at one election; 
but he did not receive a majority of votes. Proces¬ 
sions of socialists, carrying black or red flags, with 
inscriptions denunciatory of capitalists, of law, of men 
in authority, went often through the streets. On one 
occasion even, at the opening of the New Board of 



APPENDIX. 


185 

Trade, a special manifestation was made for the 
benefit of the merchants there assembled. Red and 
black flags were carried to the doors of the building. 
The procession was headed by women, All kinds 
of threats, against the merchants, capitalists, even 
against the building, were shrieked in the streets; a 
commotion was created, a carriage was stopped and 
overturned; the occupant thrown out and received 
injuries from which he died; and the procession, in 
glee, flaunting banners, bearing such quaint devices 
as “Down with Law” went through the principal 
avenues of the city. Permission was given by the 
mayor, to the socialists, to occupy on Sunday, a 
portion of what is called the Lake front, that is a piece 
of ground owned by the city, and used as a kind of 
park. And on Sunday, regular service was held, 
chiefly consisting of speeches in various languages, 
telling of the wrongs undergone by the working men; 
of the wealth, and the crimes of the “unproductive” 
classes, and of the apathy and inability of the rulers, 
to equalize and rectify things. In fine, Chicago was 
a Paradise for socialists. 

Nightly meetings in all parts of the city were 
called, to hear the chief orators of the movement. 
Occasionally some leader from abroad, came to add 
intensity to the feeling of hatred, against the mon¬ 
opolists and capitalists. Old grudges which had 
festered for centuries in Europe between the classes, 
were brought to an immense city of only fifty years 


APPENDIX. 


186 

of age, to generate a social plague. It is true, that 
with rare exceptions, the socialists were Germans, 
French, Norwegians, Polacks and Bohemians,— 
men not to the American manor born. Very few 
English speaking persons were found in their groups. 
Naturalization, was not sought by them. 

Chicago, too, took rank, as a city where strikes 
were frequent, bitter, and of considerable duration. 

During one strike it was found necessary to call 
on the United States troops, but a conflict was 
avoided. 

It was popularly, and I think correctly thought 
that the socialists, according to their usual and author¬ 
ized tactics, had succeeded in getting their associates 
into the workingmens’ organizations, and obtained 
somewhat of a mastery, and authority there, and were 
pushing matters to extremes. The increase of wages, 
the diminution of the hours of labor, were affairs of 
importance for the laboring men, and it was permis. 
sible in them to make efforts to obtain them, but it 
was observed that the strike openly and regularly 
commenced with these demands; and then other and 
more bitter topics were placed before the considera¬ 
tion of the strikers. Then came the public obstruc¬ 
tion to those branches of industry from which the 
strikers had withdrawn. The police occasionally 
interfered to protect laborers, whom the strikers de¬ 
nounced as “scabs,” and rats. And then the news¬ 
papers were filled with protests against the excessive 


APPENDIX. 187 

zeal of the law’s upholders, and so it went on. It was 
known that the socialists were at work. 

Regiments of socialists were allowed to drill, and 
bear arms, and go in procession armed, through 
the streets, and on Sundays, with martial music, dis¬ 
turb people (w T ho expected those days would be days 
of peace,) by the noisy advance to the summer 
gardens, where beer was consumed, and socialist 
speeches made, and socialistic songs sung. 

Socialistic Paradise indeed ! There was even for 
them no forbidden fruit, but there may have been 
some devils. Socialism naturally gravitates towards 
anarchism, and it was observed that a continual ad¬ 
vance along the line was made, and that the mild, 
probably just, demands of the laboring men were 
turned into the wild, unreasonable atheistic shrieks 
of hatred, against society, and all that depends upon 
it, and all that sustains it. Nieder alle Gesezen. 

I more than once received from Europe, enquiries 
as to what would be the end of all this. Would not 
the doctrines of the “Arbieter Zeitung” bear some 
fruit? Would not the stimulated claims of the labor- 
ingmen have some results? Was Liberty License? 
And so forth. 

A friend in Germany, who takes great interest in 
secret societies, thought that we had a right to con¬ 
sider slso, the interests of Europeans, in granting 
such extreme freedom to those revolutionists. They 
could take care, thought he, of the socialists in Ger- 


188 


APPENDIX. 


many and France, if their colleagues in America did 
not give them such encouragement and sympathy. 
We were, thought he, sheltering the viper. 

I used to reply to such correspondents, by saying, 
you do not know the American people; we believe 
that Liberty is a general panacea for all social sick¬ 
ness, the vaporings, (Grosswiaulshaft) of those men 
should be rated ,at nothing; some few years in 
America will show them how unreasonable they are. 
The possession of a house and lot, will cure them of 
collectivism. Naturally they will soon, they or their 
children, stand up for the laws, which guarantee them 
rights and liberties they have not had abroad. This 
is all a movement of aliens, who are not yet able to 
know what our government is; they are filled with 
a hatred of despotic power, which they have known, 
and they transfer it to those here they do yet not 
know. Let Europe look out for itself; let it take 
some chains off the people. 

But I used to add, wait! If against my predic¬ 
tions, the socialists in America should make an attack 
upon order and law, you will see such a suppression 
as will astonish your greatest despot, your most 
exacting legist. Not only the police, the army, the 
government,—National or State—will show their 
strength, but the American people, will attend to 
the viper. 

I will give a turn to the lesson of the old fable, and 
change the viper into an American rattlesnake. Let 


APPENDIX. 


189 


him rattle all he likes, but if he stings, he dies. 

Moreover, I used to say, revolutionists arc always 
putting forth exaggerated claims. In Europe, the 
people really have some rights the upper classes have 
not recognized. To reverse the proverb, they ask for 
an ell to get an inch; see to it that they get an inch. 
Here, a laboring man may become a capitalist. Most 
of the capitalists, in fact nearly all, were laboring 
men; why should they break the ladder on which 
they are to mount? 

My German friend, with a passion for the study of 
secret societies, used to answer, “All that is very 
well, you do not know the force of a secret tie, and 
of a social aim; I too, say, wait.” 

Since the Hay Market affair in Chicago, many of 
the political newspapers, and indeed many of our 
citizens, have sought to fix the blame upon the city 
authorities, for the freedom allowed to these socialists 
here. I am persuaded that, they would have been 
among the first to protest then against any curtail¬ 
ment of that freedom. The highest feeling concern¬ 
ing socialism in America, was that of astonishment, 
that it should exist here. Indeed, it was judged to 
be a foreign product, an exotic, doomed to die, and 
not worthy of being disturbed or touched. 


APPENDIX. 


190 

It was considered desirable, to attach to this 
work, a short summary of the late outbreak of 
socialism in Chicago. 

Before the first of May, in this year, a strike was 
determined on by many of the workingmen’s asso¬ 
ciations of this city, and when the day arrived, they 
abandoned many of the factories, declaring that they 
would not return to their occupations until the time 
for their labor was reduced to eight hours a day, and 
without any dimunition in the rates of the wages 
they were then receiving. The employers, in most 
cases, were unwilling to comply with those claims, 
and the men withdrew, while those in the employ¬ 
ments complying, continued at work. At the large 
Reaper factory of McCormick’s, in the south-west 
part of the city, the proprietors not wishing to accept 
the terms, most of the men struck, and departed 
peaceably. 

At first, no commotion was visible there, but in a 
short time the workmen returned to the neighbor¬ 
hood, and molested those who still remained at work 
in the factory. Some of the fences were torn down; 
gradually, greater boldness was exhibited, the police 
were interfered with and beaten, the houses of per¬ 
sons suspected by the strikers, of givers of informa¬ 
tion, were broken into and damaged, some arrests 
were made, and finally a riotous condition prevailed. 
It was already supposed that the socialists and anar¬ 
chists, according to their usual tactics, were at work, 


APPENDIX. 


9 i 


urging on the workingmen to deeds of violence. 

But the evening of the 4th of May, was set for a 
number of meetings, of all those who sympathized 
with the people, and who were to be called upon to 
show indignation against the police, for the manner 
the people were treated by them at the Reaper 
factory. 

It is not likely that the authorities had then, any 
such information of a conspiracy as was afterwards 
produced at the trial, but there were such feeling and 
ferment in the minds of the workingmen, that it was 
not considered prudent to allow them to be unduly 
stirred by revolutionary appeals; and it was decided 
that the meeting should be dispersed. 

The situation of the meeting place showed design; 
it was on a street, off from a large square. From a 
wagon, on the west side of the street, the speeches 
were made; near the wagon was an alley, running 
west, which afforded an excellent line of retreat, and 
shelter to prepare an attack. The crowd had dimin¬ 
ished at the moment when the police arrived. The 
force of police selected to disperse the meeting, 
numbered nearly one hundred and eighty men. 

The editor of the Arbeiter Zeitung, August Spies, 
had spoken to the meeting, and it was thought that 
his denunciations of the police were unusually and 
purposely mild. The speaker, at the moment of the 
arrival of the police, was Samuel Fielden. And in 
reply to the order of dispersing, he said, “This is 


192 


APPENDIX. 


a peaceable meeting.” Almost simultaneously, a 
lighted bomb was thrown from the alley, among the 
police, and after its explosion, sixty members of the 
force were put hors de combat. One was dead, and 
some others dying,—seven in all died from the effects 
of their wounds—and over fifty were seriously in¬ 
jured. Bravely the police obeyed the order to close 
up, and revolvers were fired on both sides, and the 
socialists and those not socialists, who still attended 
the meeting took to flight, and victory was on the 
side of order. Only one citizen was killed out¬ 
right, but quite a number, including Fielden, were 
wounded. 

The first shot fired at Sumpter, in the opinion of 
many, was not more significant, than the throwing 
of this bomb. It inaugurated a new war, one against 
order and society. It was the first time, that order 
in the United States had been openly attacked; and 
the unconcern with which socialistic meetings, pro¬ 
cessions, periodicals, and speeches were hitherto re¬ 
garded, gave way before the manifestation of a 
design, by force of arms, to overturn the government 
of the country, and to disposess owners of what ever 
they had acquired. 

It is not easy, to learn what hopes the socialists 
had of obtaining success. It had been said that 
some plans were laid to obtain control of the police 
stations, and the arms there stored, to burn, like 
under the Commune in Paris, many of the principal 


APPENDIX. 


i 93 


buildings, and to bring out a general chaos or 
anarchy, in which the interest of the conspirators 
might be subserved. Such dreams may have been 
entertained, but they serve only to estimate the ex¬ 
tent of the fanaticism which created them. 

It is not easy, either, to understand how they 
could have expected, with their limited numbers, to 
overpower so large a city, with an excellent and 
trained body of police, with some regiments of militia, 
and the resources of the United States within call. 

Doubtless, their chief hope lay in the expected 
defection of the working men of all the trades, who, 
now excited by anarchistic speeches, might be sup¬ 
posed ready to appeal to arms, and to be led in the 
direction^the socialists would mark out. 

The morning after the riot and massacre, May 
5th, the arrests took place of August Spies, the 
editor of the Arbeiter Zeitung , and his brother, 
Christian, Michel Schwab, the co-editor of the same 
periodical, Samuel Fielden, the orator at the meet¬ 
ing, Schnaubelt, who, it was afterwards sworn at 
the trial, was the thrower of the bomb, Lingg, the 
supposed maker of such weapons, and a number of 
other well known socialists, of whom four were 
retained. 

Parsons, the only American whose arrest was 
desirable, escaped, and remained concealed, until he 
saw fit, on the first morning of the trial, to present 
himself, and join his associates in the court room. 


194 


APPENDIX. 


Search was made in different places, for the wea¬ 
pons with which the war was to be carried on, and 
bombs loaded with dynamite were discovered in 
considerable numbers in the office of the Arbeiter 
Zeitung . In the other resorts, arms, proclamations, 
and miscellaneous socialistic literature were obtained. 
Black and red flags for use in processions were 
taken, and afterwards used at the trial. Schnaubelt, 
the bomb thrower was liberated, and when the infor¬ 
mation compromising him had been obtained, was 
not to be found, and was not put on trial. 

On the day of the arrests, Madden, a policeman, 
was shot by a notorious socialist, Krueger, but the 
officer though was able to return the shot, and both 
wounded, were taken to the Hospital, where the 
socialist died. The officer though shot through the 
lung, has survived. 

In the address to the Grand Jury, made by Judge 
Rogers, the law touching the freedom of speech was 
laid down. He defined the limits of its use and 
abuse, and called upon the Jury to take some steps 
for the suppression of such license as led up to the 
massacre of the 4th May; and on the 25 th of this 
month, the Grand Jury indicted August Spies, 
Schwab, Schnaubelt, Fischer, Fielden, Lingg, Engel, 
Neebe, and Parsons, charged with conspiracy to 
commit murder. 

And here we may remark, what little trust can be 
placed in the secret oaths upon which so many 


APPENDIX. 


i 95 

conspirators place confidence; for as soon as the 
officers commenced to look up evidence for the com¬ 
ing trial, they found abundance of it, given by sworn 
associates. The punishments threatened by the law, 
had more overawing influences than those of the 
societies, and quite a chain of evidence was gradually 
forged. In some cases, when on the witness-stand, 
the dread of the societies took away something from 
the force of the disclosures made to the police, but 
enough remained. 

The trial commenced on the 21st of June, before 
Judge Gary, in the Criminal Court. Parsons sur¬ 
rendered himself and took his place with the other 
seven, with mutual congratulations. 

What struck most persons present, for the first days 
of the trial, was the unconcern with which all the 
prisoners regarded the proceedings. They appeared 
as if the whole affair was no business of theirs, and 
occupied themselves with the mornings papers, or 
smelt the nosegays with which their friends had 
liberally provided them. Occasionally the editor of 
the Arbeiter Zeitung , would pencil, a note, and his 
associates would address each other, but an expres¬ 
sion of languor was over all their countenances. 
This might be particularly remarked, during the long 
examination of the panels, from which were selected 
the persons forming the jury; later on, when the 
evidence took a serious, and damaging, turn, a 
change in the manner of the prisoners became 


APPENDIX. 


196 

marked. They were defended by four very compe¬ 
tent lawyers, and the interests of order were watched 
over by three equally competent members of the 
legal profession. 

In the selection of a Jury, each of the eight 
prisoners was entitled to twenty peremptory chal¬ 
lenges, and as their trials were not separate, their 
counsel had the privilege of rejecting one hundred 
. and sixty persons of the different panels presented. 
It was moved to restrain the prosecution to the right 
of only twenty, it being considered as one body, but 
the Court overruled such interpretation of the law, 
and both sides received the same privilege. To agree 
upon a jury, occupied over three weeks of the court’s 
time, and the prosecution actively commenced its 
work on the 16th July, 1886. 

When the evidence of a conspiracy against law 
and order was expanded, the prosecuting attorney 
claimed to be able to show that the throwing of the 
bomb, and the ensuing massacre, were only incidents 
in a general warfare to be waged, the police stations 
were to be seized, and fire and murder used, to 
subject the city and its inhabitants to the control of 
those believing in the new Revolution. 

A very important decision of the Judge, had at 
this juncture, a very unfavorable influence on the 
hopes and countenances of the defense and the 
accused. He decided, that to show guilt against a 
conspirator, a general instigation against the police, 


APPENDIX. 


197 

looking to their destftiction, on the part of any one 
sufficed; and, that connection with the special act, 
time and place of the attack, need not be proved. 
This facilitated the march of the prosecution, and 
modified the defense. 

The police were able to prove, that on the 4th 
day of May, a circular had been issued, calling on 
the workingmen of the city, “to come in force and 
armed.” This notice led them to desire that no in¬ 
flammatory speeches should be made at the meetings 
to be held; and brought about the determination to 
disperse any meeting of a dangerous kind. At about 
half-past ten in the evening, a large body of police 
went to the Hay Market, to disperse the meeting 
there held. When summoned to disperse, Fielden, 
who was then speaking, said, “ We are peaceable ” 
and the bomb was thrown, with the results already 
noticed. It was thought that there was some real 
connection between the words, peaceable and ruhe, 
(peace), the rallying cry of the Arbeiter Zeitung, and 
that it was the signal for those in the alley to cast 
the bomb. 

The Lehr and Wehr Verein , was a militiary com¬ 
pany, oganized under the laws of the State of Illinois, 
with authority to arm, and to drill. By the testi¬ 
mony offered, it became apparent, that it was a body 
of socialists banded for their purposes, and with the 
extreme indulgence of the country, prepared for the 
enterprises they had before them. When the officials 


APPENDIX. 


198 

looked into their connection with the conspiracy, it 
was not difficult to obtain privates or officers, who, 
for their own safety, were compelled to disclose all 
they knew, yet with all possible reluctance. 

Very many understood no English. In one case, 
we learn that a German, for twenty years in this coun¬ 
try, was unable to understand any ordinary question, 
—a somewhat miraculous withdrawal of the gift of 
tongues. This was accounted for by the wavering, 
between the menaces of the Law, and those of the 
socialists, and the effort was made to serve two 
masters, with the predicted results. 

From the testimoy of one of the Lehr and Wehr 
Verein , Gottfried Waller, it was established that a 
meeting had been held, where he presided on the 
3d of May, when the mass meeting at the Hay 
Market was decided on. He testified, too, to the 
fact, that Engel, one of the prisoners, had declared 
that the north-western city groups, had announced 
their readiness to come to the aid of all their asso¬ 
ciates who were engaged in pushing their claims for 
eight hours a day, for work, with undiminished wage. 
He told how the word Ruhe , (peace), when printed 
in the Arbeiter Zeitung, was to be the rallying cry 
to arms. He was an excellent witness, as he was 
chairman of the meeting. In his details of the pro¬ 
gramme laid down by the socialists, he announced 
that the cutting of telegraphic communications; the 
seizure of the police barracks, the burning of public 


APPENDIX. 


199 

buildings, and the shooting down of any one—not a 
socialist—daring to walk the street, was decreed. 
Dynamite bombs were to be used. Two of the 
prisoners, according to his testimony, were actively 
engaged in the manufacturing and distributing of 
those explosives. Here, beyond the call to arms, 
were many other proofs of the existence of a con¬ 
spiracy. No cross-examination shook Wallers 
evidence, and it was corroborated by very reluctant 
testimony on the part of another member of the 
Lehr and Wehr regiment, Bernhard Schrader. 

Subsequent witnesses enlarged on the part the 
Englishman, Fielden, had played in the massacre. 
Lieutenants Steele and Quinn swore that on the 
arrival of the police, they heard him cry out, “Here 
come the blood hounds! Do your duty now, and I 
will do mine.” One officer testified to having seen 
Fielden discharge his revolver into the mass of police¬ 
men, and two officers took credit to themselves for 
having fired the shot which wounded him. 

As this is an appendix, it will suffice to say, that 
copies of the works of Most, and other prominent 
socialists were found, in the offices of the Arbeiter 
Zeitung ; they were actually for sale, at meetings and 
picnics, where the anarchists were taught to know 
their rights and wrongs, and be able to buy cheaply 
the weapons, chiefly dynamite, by which they could 
assert themselves. Very many revolutionary articles 
from anarchistic pens, which nobody paid any atten- 


200 


APPENDIX. 


tion to before, in the lurid light of the Hay Market 
massacre came into prominence. I think many citi¬ 
zens of the United States, must then have been aston¬ 
ished at the forbearance of the National and Federal 
authorities, in allowing such literature to be spread. 

The character of Spies’ revolutionary and anarch¬ 
istic appeals to the people, was sufficiently attested to. 
The arms found in the closets and offices of the 
Arbeiter Zeitung , were produced; they consisted of 
revolvers, fuses, fulminating caps and shells. 

The Ruhe , call to arms, was brought home to 
Spies by ample evidence; and the part Fischer took 
in spreading the inflammatory circulars was ascer¬ 
tained. Then two other informers gave important 
evidence. 

William Seliger, at whose house Lingg lodged „ 
and manufactured his dynamite bombs, testified that 
the afternoon of May 4, some forty or fifty were made 
by Lingg, himself, and five or six other persons. 
The witness explained that for tubular bombs Lingg 
used sections of metal pipe and for spherical bombs 
he cast leaden shells in a cup-shaped mold, melt¬ 
ing the lead on a ladle in the kitchen-stove. Small 
iron bolts and nuts were imbedded in the dynamite 
with which the shells were stuffed, and each shell 
was sealed with a fulminating cap and fuse attach¬ 
ment. Each bomb was powerful enough to destroy 
about 100 men if thrown into the midst of a crowd. 
Seliger also testified to the distribution of the bombs, 


APPENDIX. 


201 


and how Lingg was eager to throw a bomb at the 
Larrabee street patrol-wagon, as it was starting off 
to the scene of the explosion. Lingg and Engel 
continually urged their fellow-anarchists to arm 
themselves with bombs. Seliger’s testimony was 
corroborated by his wife, who also stated that Lingg 
tried to make a hiding-place for the bombs within 
the wall of his room, but was prevented by her. 
The prosecution showed by M. H. Williamson, a 
newspaper reporter, that Parsons and Spies had 
shown him bombs and dynamite in the Arbeiter 
Zeitung office, and that Parsons had explained the 
methods of street warfare with bombs and boasted 
of the strength and perfect organization of the 
anarchists in the city. 

Lieut. Shea produced the galley of type from 
which the “Revenge” circular was printed, and rela¬ 
ted conversations he had had with Spies and Fischer. 
Detective Jones produced two bars of dynamite, a 
large coil of fuse, and box and parcel of fulminating 
dynamite caps which he had found in Spies’ desk at 
the Arbeiter Zeitung office. Detective Duffy showed 
a sack of dynamite—probably about fifteen pounds— 
which he had found on a shelf in the rear editorial- 
room of the Arbeitor Zeitung office, and the defense 
attempted to insinuate that this had been placed 
there by the police. Harry Wilkinson, a reporter, 
gave a detailed account of conversations which he 
had with Spies about the anarchistic methods of war- 


202 


APPENDIX. 


fare in the presense of Joe Gruenhut. Gustave 
Lehmann, another of the informers, corroborated 
much of the previously-adduced evidence, describ¬ 
ing the manufacture of the bombs at Lingg’s room 
and their distribution at Neff’s Hall. Under Lingg’s 
instructions he hid a tin of dynamite and some bombs 
and fuses at Ogden’s Grove, the morning after the 
explosion. Saloon keeper Neff swore to the violent 
speech of Engel, and to the arrival of Lingg and 
Seliger with a parcel of bombs the night of the ex¬ 
plosion. F. Rosbeck, a machinist, gave some par¬ 
ticulars about the actions of his employe, Rudolph 
Schnaubelt, for the days preceding and following 
the explosion. 1 

When this stage of the trial was reached, a 
change came over the manner and countenances of 
the prisoners; their listlessness became earnestness, 
and their faces paled. Besides, their counsel seemed 
disposed to select a different course of defense, as 
such a strong chain of evidence was not anticipated. 

Another consequence of the weakness of secret 
organization, was seen in the evidence of a paid 
detective, Andrew C. Johnson, who had become a 
member of the anarchistic society for the purpose 
of revealing its doings to the authorities. Their 
incendiary speeches at all these meetings were re¬ 
ported by him, and the important fact that the i st 
day of May, was known as the day for the com- 

1. Chicago Tribune, Aug. 21, 1886. 


APPENDIX. 


203 


mencement of the revolution was established. 

Other testimony implicated Spies, Fielden and 
Parsons. The “Revenge” circular was brought 
home to Spies. 

But direct testimony, that some of the prisoners 
had actually taken part in the throwing of the bomb, 
was not lacking, and as the defense relied upon the 
inability of the prosecution to connect them with the 
special act of killing the police, the new feature of 
the evidence was very unfavorable. 

The testimony of M. M. Thompson, and H. 
Gilmer, was of a still more compromising character 
for the defense; and relieved the prosecution from 
the results of any doubts upon the correctness of 
Judge Gary’s decision, that no proof of direct con¬ 
nection, in time and place, between the throwing of 
the bomb was needed to establish the guilt of a 
conspirator, who had advised and instigated it. 

Thompson testified that at the meeting he had 
seen Spies, Schwab and Schnaubelt together, and 
overheard them talking of “pistols,” and police, and 
he saw Spies give something to Schnaubelt, which 
the latter made haste to conceal. 

Gilmer’s evidence was still more precise and to 
the point. He swore to the different parts Schwab, 
Spies and Schnaubelt took in the bomb throwing; 
Fielden at that time making his speech on the wagon. 
On the arrival of the police, Schwab spoke to Spies 
before he rushed into the alley. Fischer was already 


204 


APPENDIX. 


there; Spies, according to Gilmer, lit the match and 
touched the fuse of the bomb in Schnaubelt’s hand, 
who then threw the weapon into the ranks of the 
police. It was of immense importance to destroy 
the validity of this testimony, but it was not done on 
the cross-examination. 

The smelting furnace found in Engel’s residence 
was then introduced, and the dynamite and iron 
bolts discovered in Lingg’s home were brought in, to 
connect him with the conspiracy. The bolts were 
of the same manufacture as those found in‘ the body 
of one of the victims of the massacre. 

Lingg had confessed to the police that he had 
been manufacturing bombs for their destruction, and 
this confession was put in evidence. 

Physicians described the wounds under which the 
officers succumbed; their torn garments were exhib¬ 
ited, and the terrible ravages of the bomb’s work 
were suggested. 

Here nearly ended the direct work of the prose¬ 
cution; quantities of dynamite, fuses, and bombs, 
found in various parts of the city were then placed 
before the court, and left no doubt of the extent of 
the preparations made by the conspiracy. Dealers 
in guns narrated the negotiations between them¬ 
selves and Parsons for furnishing wholesale lots of 
revolvers. And, finally, professors of chemistry 
explained how the materials used in the bombs at 
the the Hay Market, did not differ from those found 


APPENDIX. 


205 

in the weapons which Lingg confessed he had made. 
The opening of the address, on the side of the de¬ 
fense, went back to the point of law Judge Gary had 
decided on; that no direct part in the final act of 
the massacre need be shown to prove culpability, 
provided antecedent participation, and persuasion 
existed, and that a principal need be convicted be¬ 
fore an accessory can be charged. The attorney 
Salomon, presented a contrary view. On the 
strength of the objection to this decision, the defence 
demanded that a verdict of not guilty should be 
rendered in favor of all those who had not been 
principals. This application was refused. 

It should borne in mind that in the pages we have 
given of the recent history of socialism, the anarchis¬ 
tic wing is committed to the success of their doctrine, 
by all possible means. The disregard of an oath we 
have seen is not only pardonable, but commendable, 
if by it the cause can be advanced. Atheism of 
course makes such disregard easy. Another princi¬ 
ple laid down by Most:—Every anarchist in the 
hands of the powers he is combating, may turn to 
his advantage everything possible, but if the worst 
comes, he has then an obligation to lecture all and 
everyone on the creed of his party, and be a con¬ 
fessor as well as a martyr. 

To what considerable extent they were faithful to 
those laws, was as well exemplified in this city as on 
the trials reported in Europe. 


206 


APPENDIX. 


The Mayor of the city of Chicago was called to 
give testimony, in the expectation that it might, 
through him, be substantiated, that the meeting at 
the Hay Market was an orderly and peaceable 
gathering of citizens, brutally and capriciously dis¬ 
persed by the police, and that the bomb throwers 
and their associates were in the exercise of rights 
guaranteed by the constitution of the country, and 
consequently were not criminally accountable for 
the results. 

The evidence of the Mayor was insufficient to 
bear out that deduction. 

To still further sustain that theory, a witness, 
B. Simonson, testified that Inspecter Bonfield told 
him how he would like to get 3000 socialists together 
—with no women or children with them—so that 
short work might be made of them. He swore, too, 
that the bomb had not been thrown from the alley, 
but from a point twenty feet south of it. That Spies 
and Schwab were not in the alley, was testified to 
by a cloud of witnesses, and others swore, that the 
violent speeches delivered at the meetings near the 
factory were made to keep the workingmen there 
assembled, quiet and orderly. Others on oath de¬ 
clared that the police commenced the shooting, and 
that it was nearly all on their side. In fact every¬ 
thing that could be contradicted in the testimony 
produced by the prosecution, was directly opposed 
by men under oath. 


APPENDIX. 


207 


One witness, Krumm, a Russian anarchist, gave, 
if it were reliable, and not damaged by the contra¬ 
dictions of the cross-examination, very valuable aid 
to the theory of the defense. The statements of 
H. L. Gilmer, so positive, and so unshaken, as to 
the presence of Spies and Schnaubelt in the alley, 
lighting and throwing the bomb, should necessarily 
be overthrown before the line of defense could be laid. 
Gilmer was called a “constitutional liar,” by one of 
the counsellors for the defense, and subsequently, 
the witnesses testified to his unreliability, even under 
oath. But lest some force might be attached to his 
word, Krumm swore that just before the throwing, 
he and his friend Albrecht were in the alley—and 
that neither Spies or Schnaubelt were there—and 
they had used matches and lit their pipes. So if 
Gilmer was not a “ constitutonal liar,” he might 
have mistaken the lighting of pipes for that of bombs. 
Albrecht confirmed this, and further attested that the 
firing first came from the police. Another Russian 
anarchist, swore that Parsons was not at the Hay 
Market at the time of the massacre. And Lin- 
emeyer, for the purpose of discrediting the police, 
and intimating that they had placed the dynamite in 
the closets of the Arbeiter Zeitung , swore that for 
two days before the seizure, he had calcimined the 
office, and that no such objects as the police had 
produced were there. 

It might be here said, that afterwards, the prose- 


208 


APPENDIX. 


cution brought a number of very respectable persons, 
to attest to Gilmer’s veracity; and an expert told, that 
no calcimining at the office of the Arbeiter Zeitung, 
had been done for a long time previous to the date 
fixed by Linemeyer’s story. 

The assertion, that the police were the assailants, 
was sworn to by an old physician and socialist, which 
many other associates of the movement, as far as 
they could, corroborated. 

Henry Spies, the brother of August, had given 
on his apprehension, a detailed account to the police 
of his doings, and whereabouts on the night of the 
Hay Market riot. He appeared on the stand with a 
very different narration. Explaining the discrepancy 
between his confession and his evidence, he said 
that before the police he was not under oath, and 
that he had falsified; but the sacredness of the obli¬ 
gation he was now under, constrained him to tell 
the truth. The truth was, that some person tried to 
shoot his brother August when he was on the wagon 
before the bomb exploded. He had interfered, 
struck the revolver down, and received the shot 
himself; the revolver had fallen under the wagon; 
and he gave other evidence of a nature to contradict 
the prosecution. To prove that his brother was 
on the wagon at the time of the explosion, and that 
the revolver, supposed to be Fielden’s, was not 
his, was very material indeed. Cross-examination 
impaired its strength. 


APPENDIX. 


209 


That all this testimony for the defense, was apro¬ 
pos, and singularly, almost superhumanly fortunate, 
can scarcely be denied. 

A witness named Ingham, contradicted Henry 
Spies’ testimony, and Inspector Bonfield set at rest 
that of Simonson, as to the threats of the police. 

As the law of the United States allowed the 
accused to testify in their own behalf, Fielden, 
Schwab, Spies and Parsons, in due order, took the 
stand, and were privileged to follow the anarchistic 
instructions, by expounding the socialistic doctrines 
and discussing the wrongs of the working classes. 
The evidence of all the four accused was made up 
chiefly of denials of the charges made against them. 
Fielden tried to explain away his call upon the people 
to “throttle the Law.” Spies and Schwab, in their 
own estimate, were equally innocent of any criminal 
designs. The brutality of the police, and of the 
authorities, were expatiated on; and the noble cause 
of lifting up the working man by socialism explained 
and defended. Parsons admitted that he had urged 
the people to arms, as no other means of re¬ 
dress were afforded them, and occupied nearly half 
an hour in a speech to the court, in favor of social¬ 
istic theories. 

Spies was called upon to explain a letter found 
among his papers by the police. It was from Herr 
Most. It is worthy of being quoted for reasons 
beyond the effect it had in implicating Spies in anar- 


2 IO 


APPENDIX. 


chistic plots; for it throws light on the schemes and 
aims of socialism of which Most is an acknowledged 
leader and apostle. 

“My dear Spies;— 

Are you sure that, the letter from 
the Hocking Valley, 1 was not written by a detective? 
In a week, I will come to Pittsburgh, and I have an 
inclination to go to Hocking Valley. For the 
present I send some printed matter there. The 
Sch. H, always existed but on paper. I told you this 
some time ago. On the other hand I am in the 
condition to furnish medicine , and the genuine article 
at that. Directions for use not needed with this peo¬ 
ple. Moreover they were recently published in the 
Fr. Appliances I can also send. Now if you con¬ 
sider the address of Buchtel thoroughly reliable I 
shall ship you twenty pounds. But how? Is there 
any Express line to the place? Or is there any other 
way possible ? Paulus the Great seems to delight in 
hopping about in the swamps of N Y V Z like a 
blown up (bloated frog). The best of it is that the 
fellow cannot smuggle any more rotten elements 
into the newspaper company than are already in it. 
His tirade excites general detestation. In this re¬ 
gard a caution is necessary. Take care (be on the 
look out). The organization here is not better or 
worse than formally. One group has about the 
strength of the west side group in Chicago. Besides 

1. Where strikes and riots were then prevailing. 


APPENDIX. 


21 I 


we have Soc. Peo. A ., the Austrain League, the 
Bohemian League—so to say three more corps. Be¬ 
sides it is easily seen that our influence with the great 
organizations is steadily increasing. We insert all 
our meetings only in the Fr. and cannot notice that 
they are worse attended, than at the time when we 
threw three weekly #1.50 and 20 into the mouth 
of the N Y V Z. Don’t forget to put yourself in 
connection with the Drury in reference to the Eng¬ 
lish organ. He will surely work with you much 
and well. Such the more necessary as the Truth(?) 
is getting more miserable, and more confused from 
issue to issue and in general is whistling from the 
last hole. Enclosed is a fly leaf which recently 
appeared in Emden, and is perhaps adapted to re¬ 
print. Greetings to Schwab, Rau and to youself. 

John Most. 

P. S. To Buchtel I will of course for the present 
write in general terms. 

Postal card. 

A. Spies, 

Fifth Avenue, 

Chicago, Ill. 

I had scarcely mailed you my letter yesterday 
when the telegraph brought me news from the II V 
H., one does not know whether to rejoice over that 
work or not. 1 The advance in itself is elevating and 

1. There had been a riot and bloodshed in the Hocking- Valley. 


212 


APPENDIX. 


is the circumstance that it will remain local, there¬ 
fore might not have a result. At any rate these 
people make a better impression, than the foolish 
voting on this and the other side. 

Truly Yours, J. M. 

P. S. Can now and then receive open tickets. 

The speeches for the prosecution and defense can 
be briefly summed up. The first for the prosecution 
of Mr. Frank W. Walker, was a statement denuncia¬ 
tory of the crime charged against the anarchists, 
with an analysis of the testimony adduced against 
them. The first speech for the defense, by a legal 
gentleman, not long from Austria, seemed more 
adapted to that country than to this. He inveighed 
against authority, the police, oppression, and the 
prosecuting witnesses. Everything was dark, base, 
and mendacious, he averred, in the effort to crush 
some few poor- enthusiasts. This did not appear to 
make much impression upon an American Jury. 
The recollection of the dead and wounded police¬ 
men, was stronger than the sympathy for the de¬ 
luded anarchists. 

For the State, Mr. Ingham, next addressed the 
Court, in what was considered a very able manner, 
dwelling chiefly on the evidence, and welding the 
facts of the case into a very solid chain. 

Mr. Foster, for the defense, took an entirely dif¬ 
ferent line from his colleague, and as an American, 


APPENDIX. 


213 

was better able to form a judgement upon the senti¬ 
ments, and argument likely to convince an American 
Jury. He threw overboard all respect for socialism 
and anarchism, and spoke as severely of the futility, 
and aims of the clients, as did the prosecuting 
attorneys. He still harped though on the necessity of 
connecting directly the prisoners with the act of kill¬ 
ing the policemen in the Hay Market. His speech 
made some impression on the Jury. A great part of 
his argument consisted of an effort to invalidate the 
testimony of Gilmer and Thompson, which he 
declared was the only damaging fact produced. 

The leading counsel, Mr. Black, of the defense, 
appeared to have fused the two preceding arguments 
of his colleagues, into one, and added to it a spice 
of blasphemy. The minions of the law, by their 
arrogance, and brutality, had forced his clients into 
opposition; but the throwing of the bomb was inci¬ 
dental, or accidental, or the work of an individual, 
for which they should not be held responsible. They 
were innocent enthusiasts, having a beneficent and 
lofty purpose, and their deeds should not be judged 
as sharply, as the prosecution would seem to indicate. 
The “Nazarene” suffered on account of too punc¬ 
tilious a regard for Law, and the similarity of his 
purpose, with that of the prisoners, should be 
warning, lest a like miscarriage of justice should take 
place. With the usual appreciation and depreciation 
of testimony as it bore favorably or unfavorably on 


APPENDIX. 


214 

the case, Mr. Black concluded his argument. 

The last address was that of the leading prosecu- 
ting attorney, and turned nearly altogether on the 
facts produced in the evidence. Some warmth was 
elicited by his applying the epithet assassins to the 
prisoners, and strong objections made to it, by their 
counsel. A great impression, even a marked one, 
was made on the Jury, by his able array of the 
testimony, which described the march of the con¬ 
spiracy, from the first step to its last, in the mas¬ 
sacre of the Hay Market. 

In Europe, the Judge conveys directly to the 
members of the Jury his opinion on the Law, which 
shall guide them in their deliberations; here both 
sides, the prosecution and defense, submit to him 
certain instructions, which if they meet his approval, 
must guide the Jury. The only correction of import¬ 
ance in the instructions made by the Judge, was one 
which might have been expected; once more ruling 
that a direct participation in the killing of the police¬ 
man was not necessary to prove guilt in a conspiracy. 
A short address, after the instructions were read, 
was made by the Judge, and the Jury retired. 

After a brief deliberation, the Jury reached their 
verdict, and the next morning it was declared in 
Court. The Jury, in this country, has functions not 
given to similar bodies in Europe. It decides not 
only on the guilt or innocence of the accused, but 
measures, according to Law, the penalties to be 


APPENDIX. 


215 


inflicted. In this case, the Jury decreed that seven 
of the eight prisoners, August Spies, Michel Schwab, 
Samuel Fielden, Louis Lingg, August Fischer, 
George Engel, and A. R. Parsons, were guilty as 
charged in the indictment, and that the penalty was 
death. To the eighth, Oscar Neebe, who was con¬ 
sidered less implicated in the conspiracy, fourteen 
years confinement in the penitentiary was awarded. 
There still remain to the convicted socialists, two 
opportunities of appealing against this awful sen¬ 
tence. One to the Judge who presided at their trial, 
another to the Supreme Court, where the trial may 
be reviewed. Before the Judge, in claiming a new 
trial, will be adduced again, perhaps, the opinion 
which he overruled, that a direct participation in the 
final act of the Hay Market tragedy must be shown. 
Besides the permission given by him to peremptorily 
challenge whatever avowed anarchists were pre¬ 
sented as Jurors, may be alleged as improper. Ap¬ 
plying the epithet assassins to the prisoners, was 
objected to, and may again be used as motive for a 
reversion of the sentence. It is said that new evi¬ 
dence has been found, and will be forthcoming. If 
the Judge refuses the demand for a new trial, the 
Supreme Court will decide-whether or not a suffi¬ 
cient informality has existed in the proceedings of 
the lower court, to either confirm or set aside its 
decision. 


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